The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is announcing up to $8 million in funding for Wildfire Resilience Block Grants. This funding supports California’s goals of improved forest health, resilience to climate change, and reduced forestland impacts due to devastating wildfires in line with the goals of the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force.
Cal-FIRE will accept proposals starting January 29th, with proposals due no later than February 26th, at 5:00p.m.
Additional application information including grant guidelines, eligibility requirements and deadlines can be found on the Forest Resilience Program website. All grant work must be completed by December 31st, 2027.
The purpose of the Wildfire Resilience Block Grant is to address several action items outlined in the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force Action Plan including increasing technical assistance, improving outreach supporting forest health and maintenance treatments and establishing emergency forest restoration teams.
Block grants will be awarded to eligible entities who have the capacity to deliver forestry-based technical and financial assistance programs to non-industrial forest landowners ranging in size from three to 5,000 acres.
Eligible entities must be capable of acting as lead agency for California Environmental Quality Act projects. In addition, $1 million of the $8 million in funding will be allocated specifically for forest stewardship education.
Funding to support private forestland owners is provided through the Budget Act 2023. Cal-FIRE’s Wildfire Resilience Program is tasked with assisting nonindustrial timberland owners
with wildfire resilience efforts by providing technical and financial assistance for their forest
management needs.
