California Fire Plan
The California Board of Forestry and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF)
have developed a fire plan for wildland fire protection. The overall goal is to reduce the total costs and losses from
wildland fire in California by protecting assets at risk through focused prefire management prescriptions and increasing
initial attack success. Five major components will form the ongoing fire planning process to monitor and assess
California’s wildland fire environment.
Wildfire Protection Zones
The Fire Plan requires the development of wildfire safety zones to reduce citizen and firefighter risks from future,
large wildfires.
Initial Attack Success
Also, the Plan defines an assessment process for measuring the level of service provided by the fire protection system
for wildland fire. Knowledge of the level of service will help define the risk to wildfire damage faced by public and
private assets in the wildlands.
Assets Protected
The Plan will establish a methodology for defining assets protected and their degree of risk from wildfire. This
includes citizen and firefighter safety, watersheds and water, timber, wildlife and habitat, unique areas (scenic,
cultural, and historic), recreation, range, structures, and air quality.
Prefire Management
This aspect of the Plan focuses on system analysis methods that assess alternatives to protect assets from
unacceptable risk of wildland fire damage. Prefire managers design prescriptions to protect these assets and to
identify the benefits and thus, the appropriate party to share in the project costs.
Fiscal Framework
The Board of Forestry and CDF are developing a fiscal framework for assessing and monitoring annual and long–term
changes in California’s wildland fire protection systems. Monitoring system changes through this fiscal framework allows
the Board and CDF to address public policy issues that maximize the efficiency of California’s firefighting resources.
For more information, visit the California Fire Plan website at:
http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/fire_plan.
California Biodiversity News: Volume 8, Number 2
Fall/Winter 2001
For more information on the California Biodiversity Council, please contact:
Erin Klaesius, Communications Coordinator
CA Biodiversity Council
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
Email:erin_klaesius@fire.ca.gov
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