Resilient Park Forests

In response to the historic California wildfire season of 2020, Governor Newsom’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force released California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan (Plan) in 2021. The Plan introduces a comprehensive framework for establishing healthy and resilient forests that can withstand and adapt to wildfire, drought, and a changing climate.

In the Plan, State Parks is specifically called upon to:

(1) Scale up prescribed fire and fuel reduction programs;

(2) Expand collaboration with neighboring landowners and agencies to promote resilient and healthy forests at a landscape scale;

(3) Increase outreach and education to share best practices that support ecosystem services; and

(4) Implement an effective monitoring program to gather information on the ecological benefits of these practices.

Increasing Pace and Scale

As the steward of some of the state’s most highly valued natural and cultural resources, State Parks is committed to providing for the continued resilience of those resources through the work of its natural resources staff.

Upon the release of the Plan and dedicated funding in 2021, Natural Resources Division (NRD) and statewide State Parks staff created the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Program (WFRP). By significantly increasing funding for wildfire and forest resilience work statewide, the WFRP expands on critical land management that State Parks has been carrying out for decades. The WFRP will allow State Parks to “lead by example” (as encouraged in the Plan), increasing the pace and scale of fuels treatments so that State Parks lands can become an example of resilient ecosystems maintained through active stewardship.

WFRP work carried out at park units includes ecosystem resilience treatments (e.g. prescribed burning, forest thinning, associated monitoring), post-wildfire recovery and restoration work, pre-wildfire planning, and education and outreach related to wildfire and forest resilience. The WFRP staff at NRD work to increase the efficacy of the WFRP by standardizing statewide monitoring and data collection efforts, organizing key trainings for State Parks staff implementing WFRP work, building statewide partnerships and agreements, supporting planning and implementation of work at park units, and otherwise coordinating efforts in order to build capacity across the state.

How can you get involved with Wildfire and Forest Resilience at State Parks?

A key feature of WFRP, and State Parks’ Natural Resources program more broadly, is a focus on collaboration and partnership to increase the efficacy and scale of land management treatments. If you are involved with an organization doing relevant work near State Parks land, involved with landscape scale planning efforts that encompass State Parks land, conducting research that could be relevant to State Parks land, or otherwise seeking to collaborate with State Parks’ WFRP, please reach out to WFRP staff at NRD in Sacramento. We are always looking to collaborate.