The State has officially launched the Forest Management Task Force (Task Force), a cooperative effort between State, federal, and local governments to tackle the myriad forest health issues facing California statewide. The Task Force was initially announced by Governor Brown in his January State of the State Address to respond to the overarching need for better management of California’s forests and forested watersheds.
The first meeting of the new Task Force took place on Monday, June 11, and was modeled on the Tree Mortality Task Force, a group of State, federal, and local agencies and interest groups that have been working together since October 2015 to address the State’s tree mortality emergency.
The new Task Force will continue efforts on tree mortality, but will also focus on carrying out the directives contained in the Governor’s May 10th Executive Order, expanding the work of the group to address in detail forest management issues such as wood products utilization, regulatory barriers, education and outreach to landowners, forest restoration and prescribed fire using the State Strategic Fire Plan and Forest Carbon Plan as a roadmap. The Task Force is set to meet monthly, and RCRC will continue its participation. RCRC encourages interested counties to seek involvement in the Task Force subgroups as they are formed in the coming weeks.