Wildfire Resilience

Forests in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range are being stressed by many factors that put them at risk. High-severity wildfire, drought stress, insect outbreaks, disease, and a backdrop of changing climate are a few. A significant portion of Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades forests are owned and managed as small parcels (10 to 100 acres) by nonindustrial private landowners. The Forest Management Handbook for Small Parcel Landowners is designed to help landowners determine what, if any, management actions need to be done, and how to obtain technical and financial support to manage private forestland.

Full Handbook (PDF)

HaExternal LinkHandbook: Summary Version (PDF)

Handbook: Overview (PDF)

To obtain a hard copy of the publication, please contact a Forestry Assistant Specialist in your County.

The Forestland Steward is a collaborative publication between CAL FIRE, Placer RCD, UC Cooperative Extension, and the US Forest Service. The newsletter is published three times a year and offers private forest landowners throughout the state helpful and relevant information for managing their land. With up-to-date policy information, agency input, and science-driven management recommendations, the newsletter strives to provide landowners with all the facts (and some fun, too!) to create a healthy and sustainable landscape. 

Forestland Steward Newsletter (PDF)

This publication presents some key considerations and insights into selecting the appropriate permit to facilitate fuel-reduction projects on private lands—and offers insights into permitting larger fuel projects that involve multiple owners or multiple funding sources. The publication is organized around projects that take place before or after wildfires. It is intended for foresters, private owners of both small and large parcels of land, natural-resource professionals, and project developers. The publication includes decision trees to help landowners and resource managers crosswalk projects to permits.

Planning and Permitting Forest Fuel-Reduction Projects on Private Lands in California (PDF)

CAL FIRE created a grant opportunity in 2020 focused around providing funding for eligible entities to provide technical and financial assistance to forestland owners. The purpose of the block grant is to allow prospective grantees the ability to provide a program of financial and technical forestry assistance to nonindustrial forest landowners, where the grantee serves as the supervising entity, receives the grant from CAL FIRE and then provides outreach and/or technical/financial assistance to landowners so they can conduct forest restoration or management activities on their property. In 2020, CAL FIRE awarded $2.2M to two grantees. Additional funding was allocated for Wildfire Resilience Block Grants in 2022. This program remains dependent on special funds.

• CAL FIRE's Wildfire Resilience team seeks to maintain and enhance the resilience of California’s small non-industrial private forestland owners to promote healthy resilient forests throughout the state by supporting a diverse set of projects designed to interact with landowners in a similar fashion as the California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP).
• Applicants are limited to counties, resource conservation districts, special districts, and 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations that have the capacity to deliver a forestry based technical and financial assistance program to non-industrial forest landowners. 
• Projects should prioritize funding forest improvement practices including but not limited to tree and brush thinning, tree release, pruning, site preparation and tree planting, follow up work to support tree growth, and/or slash disposal. This grant opportunity will not fund prescribed fire but will fund burning of piles for slash disposal.