Spring 2018 - Special Issue
The USDA Climate Hub program is a unique collaboration across a number of the department's agencies designed to develop and deliver science-based, region-specific information and products to agricultural and forest managers to enable climate-informed decision-making and advance climate adaptation practices.  The USDA California Climate Hub, one of ten Hubs nation-wide, is located in Davis CA on the UC Davis campus.
USDA California Climate Hub
California Forestry News Report
This is a special issue to the regular monthly news, notes and events to report on last weeks press release announcing Gov. Jerry Browns executive order to protect communities from wildfire and climate impacts and share the announcement that the California Forest Carbon Plan has been officially released among other information for our stakeholders in the forestry sector. See below for more information on these two important developments
Executive Order Announced to Protect Communities from Wildfire and Climate Impacts
Coming off the worst fire season in California's history, Governor Brown issued an executive order to address tree mortality, increase sustainability of the states forests and help improve forest management. As part of this order Governor Brown will included $96 additional million in the states budget which is in addition to $160 million proposed in January’s Cap and Trade expenditure plan to support forest improvements and fire protection.
Other key elements of this include:

  • Doubling the land actively managed through vegetation thinning, controlled fires and reforestation from 250,000 acres to 500,000 acres.
  • Launching new training and certification programs to help promote forest health through prescribed burning.
  • Boosting education and outreach to landowners on the most effective ways to reduce vegetation and other forest-fire fuel sources on private lands.
  • Streamlining permitting for landowner-initiated projects that improve forest health and reduce forest-fire fuels on their properties.
  • Supporting the innovative use of forest products by the building industry.
  • Expanding grants, training and other incentives to improve watersheds.
California Forest Carbon Plan Released
This Forest Carbon Plan describes forest conditions across California based on the best available information and provides a projection of future conditions given the ongoing and expected climate impacts. The plan describes goals and related specific actions to improve overall forest health, enhance carbon storage resilience, increase sequestration, and reduce emissions, and provides principles and policies to guide and support those actions.
Webinar: Home and landscape wildfire defense: lessons learned from the 2017 California wildfire season
Join this webinar on Wednesday June 13th at noon PST to learn about lessons learned from the 2017 fire season. This event is being held by the California fire science consortium and UC Cooperative Extension.


Grant Funding Available

CAL FIRE’s Fire Prevention Grants Program provides funding for local projects and activities that address the risk of wildfire and reduce wildfire potential to forested and forest adjacent communities. Funded activities include: hazardous fuel reduction, fire planning, and fire prevention education with an emphasis on improving public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Fire Prevention Grants Program is now accepting applications for the FY 2017-2018 grant cycle.

For more information please visit the Fire Prevention Grants website .
We Want to Hear from You

Let us know if you have news worthy items, outputs or products or associated resources that may be of use to the USDA California Climate Hub community. Please click here to email USDA Climate Hub staff or email Climate Hub Director, Steven Ostoja at steven.ostoja@ars.usda.gov directly