{"id":73737,"date":"2025-06-25T15:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T22:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=73737"},"modified":"2025-06-25T15:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T22:22:15","slug":"governor-newsom-announces-135-million-available-for-new-wildfire-projects-amid-trumps-assault-on-resources-protecting-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=73737","title":{"rendered":"Governor Newsom announces $135 million available for new wildfire projects amid Trump\u2019s assault on resources protecting communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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What you need to know:\u00a0<\/strong>Governor Newsom announced $135 million is available for wildfire prevention grants \u2013 protecting communities from catastrophic wildfire at the same time as President Trump adds new strain to firefighting resources.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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SACRAMENTO \u2013\u00a0As President Trump continues straining firefighting and prevention resources in California, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the state has $135 million available for new and ongoing projects to protect communities from catastrophic wildfire.<\/p>\n

Grant applications<\/a>\u00a0are now open for CAL FIRE\u2019s Wildfire Prevention Grants Program. It funds local projects that focus on increasing the protection of people, structures, and communities. Activities include hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention planning, and wildfire prevention education.<\/p>\n

The funding builds on\u00a0$72 million the Governor announced last month<\/a>\u00a0for forest health projects across the state \u2013 part of $2.5 billion in investments in wildfire prevention work that have more than doubled since the Governor took office.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement comes as the California National Guard\u2019s (CalGuard) critical firefighting crews \u2013 known as Task Force Rattlesnake \u2013 are operating at just 40% capacity due to President Trump\u2019s illegal militarization of Los Angeles. The National Guard impact is on top of the Trump administration\u2019s dangerous\u00a0cuts to the U.S. Forest Service<\/a>, which also threatens the safety of communities across the state.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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“We won\u2019t let Trump stand in the way of protecting Californians from catastrophic wildfire. We\u2019re making millions more available to fund projects that are proven to keep communities safe.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Governor\u00a0Gavin Newsom<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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CAL FIRE\u2019s Wildfire Prevention Grants are effective. Local projects like proactive vegetation management, defensible space creation and structure hardening helped preserve historical structures and homes in Los Angeles County in 2025. In 2024 in Sonoma County, over 300 acres of shaded fuel breaks, created by clearing brush and small trees along roads, helped reduce flammable vegetation and slowed a fire\u2019s spread. Residents were able to evacuate safely, and firefighters were able to stop the spread of fire quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese examples demonstrate how grant funds are effectively helping to improve wildfire resilience in California communities through thoughtful planning and preventative work funded through CAL FIRE grants,\u201d\u00a0said Chief Daniel Berlant, California State Fire Marshal.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cOver the last five years, over $500 million has been awarded to over 490 projects across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

California\u2019s unprecedented wildfire readiness<\/h2>\n

Despite the strain caused by President Trump, California stands ready to protect communities. As part of the state\u2019s ongoing investment in wildfire resilience and emergency response, CAL FIRE has significantly expanded its workforce over the past five years by adding an average of 1,800 full-time and 600 seasonal positions annually \u2013 nearly double that from the previous administration. Over the next four years and beyond, CAL FIRE will be\u00a0hiring thousands of additional firefighters<\/a>, natural resource professionals, and support personnel to meet the state\u2019s growing demands.<\/p>\n

Late last month, the Governor announced\u00a0$72 million for projects across the state<\/a>\u00a0that help reduce catastrophic wildfire risk. Additionally, 20 new vegetation management projects spanning nearly 8,000 acres\u00a0have already been approved<\/a>\u00a0for fast-tracking under the Governor\u2019s new streamlining initiative.<\/p>\n

This builds on consecutive years of intensive and focused work by California to confront the severe ongoing risk of catastrophic wildfires, and Governor Newsom\u2019s emergency proclamation signed in March to fast-track forest and vegetation management projects throughout the state. Additionally, to bolster the state\u2019s ability to respond to fires, Governor Newsom recently announced that the state\u2019s\u00a0second C-130 Hercules airtanker is ready for firefighting operations<\/a>, adding to the largest aerial firefighting fleet in the world.<\/p>\n

New, bold moves to streamline state-level regulatory processes builds long-term efforts already underway in California to\u00a0increase wildfire response and forest management in the face of a hotter, drier climate.<\/a>\u00a0A full list of California\u2019s progress on wildfire resilience is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What you need to know:\u00a0Governor Newsom...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73738,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73737\/revisions\/73738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}