California doubles down to protect communities from wildfire with 25 key deliverables for 2025

SACRAMENTO – Following the devastation of the Los Angeles firestorms and with escalating risks of catastrophic wildfires, the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force today released a list of 25 key deliverables that will protect communities and natural landscapes statewide.

The list builds on Governor Gavin Newsom’s emergency proclamation to expedite wildfire prevention projects across the state, and the extensive work of the Task Force to date. A full list of the 2025 Key Deliverables is available here.

The deliverables outline the highest priority actions underway this year to achieve the commitments in California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, launched in 2021, and to advance key new initiatives that will be highlighted in the forthcoming update of the Action Plan to be released later this year. Many of the deliverables are already underway.

“The Los Angeles firestorms put another exclamation point on the need to use every tool we have available to protect communities from wildfire. These deliverables pull from the state’s already nation-leading toolbox of solutions and push California to move even faster.”

This comes at a critical time, building on the unprecedented actions Governor Newsom has already taken in response to the Los Angeles fires and advancing the Governor’s emergency proclamation to cut red tape and fast-track wildfire prevention projects.

“The Task Force has made strong progress to protect Californians from catastrophic wildfire,” said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “But much more work is needed. These deliverables chart out critical solutions we will put in place to protect people and their homes, restore the health of our landscapes, and continue to build out a long-term comprehensive approach to strengthening our resilience to wildfire.”

What are the top priorities of the 2025 Key Deliverables?

The deliverables strategically prioritize community safety, forest health, and rural economies through actions that will:

• Improve home and community wildfire resilience.

• Streamline regulatory processes.

• Expand landscape-scale resilience programs.

• Scale-up beneficial fire.

• Increase post-fire restoration programs.

• Create forest sector jobs and a sustainable wood products market.

• Build a science-based framework for measuring progress.

Building on nation-leading progress

The 2025 Key Deliverables are the next advancement made by California to increase wildfire response and forest management in the face of a hotter, drier climate. From day 1, Governor Newsom declared California’s firefighters and wildfire resilience as a top priority of his administration. Since taking office, the Governor has committed more resources and investments than ever before to significantly boost wildfire response capabilities while tackling root causes of the wildfire crisis head-on. A full list of California’s progress on wildfire resilience is available here.

Historic investments — Overall, the state has more than doubled investments in wildfire prevention and landscape resilience efforts, providing more than $2.5 billion in wildfire resilience since 2020, with an additional $1.5 billion to be allocated from the 2024 Climate Bond.

On-the-ground progress — More than 2,200 landscape health and fire prevention projects are complete or underway, and from 2021-2023, the state and its partners treated nearly 1.9 million acres, including nearly 730,000 acres in 2023.

Increasing transparency — The Governor’s Task Force launched an Interagency Treatment Dashboard to display completed federal, state, local, and private vegetation management projects across the state. The Dashboard, launched in 2023, provides transparency, tracks progress, facilitates planning, and informs firefighting efforts.

Protecting communities — Since 2019, CAL FIRE has awarded more than $450 million for 450 wildfire prevention projects across the state and conducts Defensible Space Inspections on more than 250,000 homes each year.

Leveraging cutting-edge technology — On top of expanding the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet, CAL FIRE has doubled its use of drones and the state is utilizing AI-powered tools to spot fires quicker.