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Extracted from Consolidated Report
This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.
Lake County Grand Jury
• 2021-2022
Wildfire Risk Mitigation in Lake County
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings 5 findings
F1
Page 244
All homes and business in the WUI must be required to be more resistant to ignition from wildfire embers and flames.
F2
Page 244
Current codes and standards, as well as sound land-use practices, must be enforced for new development and rebuilding in wildfire-prone areas. Page | 265 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report
F3
Page 245
Fire departments for communities in the WUI must be formally trained and be provided appropriate personal protection equipment and be physically fit so as to be prepared to respond safely and effectively to wildfire.
F4
Page 245
Governments must increase resources for vegetative fuel management on public land.
F5
Page 245
The public must understand its responsibility and take action in reducing wildfire risk on its private property. FINDINGS F-1: The CWPP is in the process of being updated from its 2009 edition and a preliminary draft has been created. Regulations require its update every five years. F-2: The County is planning to hire a Climate Resilience Officer to interact with wildfire mitigation stakeholders to prioritize tasks and share resources. F-3: Reduction of State prison inmate fire crews substantially impact CAL FIRE’s fuel reduction mitigation and also fire suppression, as “troops on the ground” do the heaviest work in each area. F-4: Lake County’s Code Enforcement Division is understaffed and under-resourced and cannot prioritize wildfire mitigation or enforcement/collection of fines. F-5: The Northshore Fire Protection District has developed a fuel- reduction crew that will be available for projects across Lake County. F-6: The indigenous community historically has had special expertise in forest management that is being recognized, belatedly, by government and community groups active in mitigation efforts through support of prescribed burns. F-7: The Board of Supervisors has declared a local bark-beetle tree- mortality emergency, which is expected to make additional mitigation funding available, including possibly to private property owners for whom tree removal is cost-prohibitive. Page | 266 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report F-8: CAL FIRE has arranged for an “air curtain incinerator” to be available on Cobb for one year to burn brush and trees. F-9: The Lake County Fire Safe Council is not independent of the Board of Supervisors, whereas the South Lake County Fire Safe Council is a 501(c)(3) with strong community support. F-10: The total amount of Kelseyville Riviera mitigation assessment funds raised in 2018 were not expended as planned, and the amount and location of the balance is unknown to the public.
Recommendations 9
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R1Page 274Led by CAL FIRE, the State of California must engage in collaborative landscape-level forest management for long-term forest resiliency. This planning process should include stakeholders at all levels of government, Native American tribes, scientists, environmental and environmental justice groups, private industry representatives and local residents. Because forest health impacts Californians in urban and coastal areas, efforts should be made to include representatives from non-forested regions to elevate the importance of California’s forests to the entire state’s wellbeing. Leaders also should review existing forestry practices and procedures, including the state’s Forest Practice Rules, to assess whether they facilitate forest resiliency in a changing climate. • Over time, funding gradually should be shifted from reacting to the consequences of poor forest management to preventative treatments that promote forest health and resilience. This should include spreading the costs among a greater array of beneficiaries of healthy forests statewide. • State agencies should plan to make greater use of the Good Neighbor Authority to perform treatments on federal land • State leaders should continue to remind federal lawmakers and policymakers of federal obligations to its forests within California. Page | 273 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report
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R2Page 275On CAL FIRE funds that have time constraints for encumbrance and liquidation, the Department of Finance should allow longer timelines to facilitate collaborative large-scale forest management planning.
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R3Page 275The State of California should lead a policy shift from fire suppression to using fire as a tool. • This should include creating dedicated prescribed fire crews. These job classifications should be designed to attract the state’s top talent, with pay comparable to non-prescribed fire crews.
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R4Page 275Treating the land at the scale outlined in the draft Forest Carbon Plan will require more resources. CAL FIRE, local air districts and other affected agencies should develop a list of potions they will need to meet the draft Forest Carbon Plan goals of treating 500,000 acres of nonfederal land per year, 500,000 acres of USDA Forest Service land per year and 10,000 to 15,000 acres of acres of Bureau of Land Management land per year. State agencies should assume that at least part of the federal lands acreage treated will be by state entities working under the Good Neighbor Authority, and predict their staffing needs accordingly. The Legislature should then fund these extra positions, including the positions at the local level. • As more funding ñ such as the jump from $40 million to more than $200 million in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds between FY 2016-17 and 2017-18 ñ is allocated for forest management to CAL FIRE and other agencies, these entities must be responsible for properly planning for its use, including an adequate number of staff with necessary skills. If new positions are necessary, CAL FIRE and other agencies and departments should not be penalized for developing the resources needed to successfully administer the forest management program.
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R5Page 275The California Air Resources Board, land managers and other stakeholders should continue to actively work to find ways to increase prescribed burning through better use of technology, including modeling software, traditional portable air quality monitoring and new low- cost sensor monitoring. Page | 274 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report • State agencies and other stakeholders should continue to participate to the extent possible in the Fire MOU and Air, Land and Water meetings, as well as other collaborative cross-jurisdictional efforts to overcome the barriers to prescribed fire. Pertinent agencies that currently do not participate in these efforts should participate.
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R6Page 276The State of California should encourage the development of additional infrastructure to utilize material removed from the forests as part of long-term forest management. • The California Natural Resources Agency, along with members of the steering committee and the interagency leads for each recommendation, should report back to the Commission on the implementation of the SB 859 working group’s recommendations. • The state should issue grants to small communities so they can develop infrastructure according to their needs. • The state should develop a statewide biomass policy that takes into account the needs of different parts of the state. All stakeholder communities, including environmental justice, should provide input into this policy. • Part of this plan should explore the potential of biomass near forested communities with newer, cleaner facilities vis-a-vis the economies of scale provided by larger facilities. • Additionally, this should include research on the public benefits provided by biomass energy within the context of the Renewables Portfolio Standard policy of “least cost best fit,” and whether those benefits qualify biomass energy as the best in certain situations. Further, analysis of public benefits should give consideration to whether biomass should receive subsidies to lower costs in certain cases, particularly in facilities developed or retrofitted with cleaner technology. •
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R7Page 276To better educate Californians about the suite of benefits healthy forests provide to the state, the state should consider the following: Page | 275 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report • The state should invest in a long-term forest health campaign similar to Save our Water by contracting with an organization that can use its expertise to raise public awareness of forest health issues. A high-ranking person within the Governor’s Administration - preferably the Governor - must champion this effort. Outreach messages should be based on research. • The Legislature should fund extensive statewide public outreach campaigns for CAL FIRE to continue to educate the public on the benefits of healthy forests and prescribed fire. • The California Natural Resources Agency should work with the Department of Education to catalog existing educational resources on resilient forests, the history of fire in California’s ecological development and from where pupils’ water originates to allow teachers to easily access and incorporate the information into their curricula. Additionally, the California Natural Resources Agency should advertise this collection to teachers to spread awareness of these resources. • The California Natural Resources Agency should collaborate with state colleges and universities offering forestry programs to increase awareness of forest health concerns in their communities, to both educate the public and increase enrollment • In these programs. Forestry technical advisors affiliated with universities should be consulted on where they are encountering educational gaps to help identify where efforts should be targeted. • Water districts should play a greater role in educating their customers on the sources of their water. To facilitate this, the state should provide funding for an organization to create educational toolkits that water agencies easily can customize. • The state should provide grant funding for an educational organization to bring lawmakers, policymakers and their staff to forests to teach them about the benefits provided by forests, the consequences of forest neglect and the different forest treatment outcomes. The organization should work closely with the Legislature and other appropriate bodies to overcome logistical hurdles. Page | 276 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report • Californians’ knowledge levels and attitudes toward forest health should be measured at the onset of educational campaigns, and policymakers should set clear goals for the changes they would like to see in those attributes. These should be measured throughout the campaigns, with course corrections designed as necessary if the state does not meet its outcomes. •
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R8Page 278The Tree Mortality Task Force should evolve into a forest management planning entity, with dedicated funding. • It should help set a strategic direction for forest management, identify measureable goals, decide how to track results and recommend course corrections to better achieve those goals. • It should advise on how to incorporate technology in assessing and improving forest health. • This should include reviewing the planning process and developing recommendations on where streamlining can occur.
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R9Page 278The California Natural Resources Agency, its relevant departments and the California Environmental Protection Agency should regularly report to the Legislature and post online progress on the metrics listed in the Forest Carbon Plan, as well as the steps it is taking to begin implementing the plan. The Commission may hold a follow-up hearing on these steps as well as the progress made on its recommendations. Page | 277 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Exhibit 2 Page | 278 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 279 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 280 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 281 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Exhibit 3 Page | 282 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 283 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 284 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 285 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 286 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 287 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 288 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 289 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 290 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 291 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 292 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 293 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 294 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 295 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 296 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 297 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 298 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 299 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 300 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Page | 301 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report Exhibit 4 Lake County - Aligning to Action Healing the Land, Healing the People Prepared by the Community Mitigation Assistance Team - May 27, 2021 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Large wildfires over the past six years, which scorched thousands of acres and resulted in the loss of several thousand homes, served as wake-up call to the residents and land managers in Lake County. In 2019, talk about bringing in a Community Mitigation Assistance Team (CMAT) began. Those same fires, as well as the pandemic in 2020, delayed the Team’s start but both the community and the CMAT recognized the need and finally made it happen, albeit virtually. The County has many things going for it - numerous Firewise USA® Communities working to increase mitigation with their neighborhoods; strong relationships between CAL Fire and the local fire departments; adoption of both the Wildland Urban Interface Code and Buildings Codes; a partnership between the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, USFS, BLM, and New Paradigm College formed a non- Page | 302 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Final Report profit, the Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance (TERA) to create a training program for Tribal members to increase the mitigation workforce in the County. In 2018, the County adopted a Hazardous Vegetation Abatement Ordinance, though implementation has been slowed by the pandemic. Though efforts were underway, mitigation leaders, residents, organizations, and governmental agencies recognized that they often didn’t know who was doing what and that their efforts had minimal cohesive focus. Amazing work and partnerships were flourishing with some groups and in some areas of the County but not at the level everyone felt was needed. Lake County and the Mendocino National Forest requested a CMAT to enhance Lake County’s collaborative efforts and evaluate their wildfire mitigation strategy, including relevant plans, programs, and activities. They also requested CMAT develop priorities, clarify roles and responsibilities of involved parties, and provide them with an actionable plan to implement. This report summarizes the CMAT’s