Forest Health Research Program
The Forest Health Research Program offers grants to eligible applicants primarily through an annual competitive proposal and selection process, as well as through discretionary awards and contracts for specific topics of interest to the Department. To date, the Research Program has funded over $38.6 million in research grants.
The Forest Health Research Program is funded through the California Climate Investments program (Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund) and managed by the Fire and Resource Assessment Program at CAL FIRE. Additional opportunities for research funding are available through other CAL FIRE programs.
Recent News:
- Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Forest Health Research Grant Awards: $5.5 Million in Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Wildfire and Forest Resilience Funds awarded to 15 research projects.
The Research Program budget allocates grant funding to four different project types:
- Projects on CAL FIRE Demonstration State Forests.
- Projects on other forestland in California.
- Graduate student research.
- Scientific synthesis and tool development.
- Projects that focus on expanding ecological monitoring of vegetation treatments.
The following topics have been identified as priorities for study for the Research Program for FY 2022-23. Topics are numbered for reference, but not ranked in terms of priority. Research proposed under this solicitation must address one or more of these priority topics. Research projects should be focused on and relevant to California ecosystems and their management.
- Disturbance, recovery, and strategies for various types of landowners to increase forest resilience in an altered future climate.
- Implementation, effectiveness, impacts, and tradeoffs of current and alternative management strategies to reduce unwanted wildfire impacts, increase carbon storage, sustain and promote biodiversity, improve water and air quality, and provide regional economic benefits.
- Contemporary range of variation and trends in fire regimes, forest conditions and distributions in California ecosystems (particularly those less well studied) in relation to historical or pre-European settlement conditions or processes.
- Forest products and utilization of forest residues related to fuel reduction and forest health treatments.
- Human dimensions, socio-economic considerations, and environmental justice issues related to forest health and wildfire management.
- Improved prediction of wildland fire spread, behavior, severity, patch size, and potential impacts, particularly under extreme weather conditions and/or within the wildland-urban interface.
- Special Topics may be identified as additional priorities for the Research Program in each solicitation. Please see the current grant guidelines for any Special Topics.
- Full descriptions with examples of relevant proposal topics are available in the current grant guidelines.