AB2513 - Wildfire: Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program: local assistance grant program: regional landscape grants.

Enrolled September 04, 2026 Passed IN Senate August 30, 2026 Passed IN Assembly August 31, 2026 Amended IN Senate August 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate August 03, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 16, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 06, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 2513 Introduced by Assembly Member Petrie-Norris February 20, 2026 An act to add Section 1357 to the Fish and Game Code, and to amend Sections 4124, 4124.5, 4208, 4208.1, and 4799.05 of, and to add Sections 4208.2 and 4799.05.1 to, the Public Resources Code, relating to wildfire. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2513, Petrie-Norris. Wildfire: Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program: local assistance grant program: regional landscape grants. Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, including the Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, in coordination with certain public agencies, to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as provided. Existing law requires the task force, on or before March 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, to update that action plan, as provided. Existing law establishes, in the Department of Conservation, a Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program to support regional leadership to build local and regional capacity and develop, prioritize, and implement strategies and projects that create fire-adapted communities and landscapes, as provided. Existing law requires the department to, upon appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of the program, provide block grants to regional entities, as defined, to develop regional strategies that develop governance structures, identify wildfire risks, foster collaboration, and prioritize and implement projects within the region to achieve the goals of the program, as specified. Existing law authorizes the regional entities to implement activities pursuant to this program, directly or by providing subgrants or contracts, and collaborative planning efforts with local entities to accomplish development of regional priority strategies, among other objectives. Existing law authorizes the department to, until July 1, 2025, authorize advance payments of grants awarded pursuant to the program. This bill would authorize the Director of Conservation to directly award regional landscape grants to regional entities to implement the above-described regional priority strategies to contribute to the achievement of the goals of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as specified. The bill would extend the authorization for the department to award advance payments of grants awarded pursuant to the program indefinitely. Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to provide grants to, or enter contracts or other cooperative agreements with, specified entities for the implementation and administration of projects and programs to improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Existing law requires moneys appropriated to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for landscape-scale projects to be allocated to subsidize the removal of small-diameter material and dead trees, for multiple benefit projects, and for activities on national forest lands, as provided. This bill would additionally require moneys appropriated to the department for landscape-scale projects to be allocated for projects that improve ecosystem health and for regional landscape grants that the director would be authorized to directly award to regional entities, as defined, to implement the above-described regional priority strategies. The bill would also require the director, in collaboration with the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to, before the issuance of these grants, establish guidelines for funding the grants to contribute to the achievement of the goals of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities in the state and extends eligibility for grants to, among others, local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations. Existing law requires eligible activities under the local assistance grant program to include, but not be limited to, vegetation management along roadways and driveways to reduce fire risk, as provided. This bill would expand eligible activities to include vegetation modification and specify that the vegetation management and modification along roadways and driveways includes wildfire ignition risk. The bill would also add ignition prevention, as defined, to the eligible activities. The Wildlife Conservation Law of 1947 establishes the Wildlife Conservation Board within the Department of Fish and Wildlife to investigate, study, and determine what areas within the state are most essential and suitable for wildlife production and preservation, among other things. Under existing law, the board administers various habitat conservation programs. This bill would authorize the Wildlife Conservation Board to award regional landscape grants to local entities, as defined, to implement regional priority strategies as described above. The bill would also require, before the issuance of these grants, the board, in collaboration with the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to establish guidelines for funding these regional landscape grants to contribute to the achievement of the goals of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 4799.05 of the Public Resources Code proposed by AB 1699 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1699 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) Wildfires pose an ongoing and increasing threat to life, property, public health, and the state’s economy. (2) Over the past decade, California has recognized that wildfire behavior varies widely across the state with winds being the predominant driver of wildfires in the southern part of the state and fuels being the predominant driver of wildfires in the northern part of the state. (3) Southern California’s shrubland and chapparal landscapes require different approaches to reduce the threat of wildfire that do not align with the needs in forested landscapes. (4) Led by the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force and supported by the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program administered by the Department of Conservation, local capacity has grown, and regions are developing strategies and projects that respond to these differing contexts and fire regimes. (5) The Wildlife Conversation Board is dedicated to safeguarding California’s spectacular biological diversity and wild spaces for the benefit of present and future generations. The Wildlife Conversation Board achieves this goal, in part, through the issuance of grants for restoration purposes that fund projects that provide wildfire resilience benefits and in turn protect California’s wild spaces and biological diversity. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to match funding levels to the scale of the problem, and the scale of regionally developed plans and projects. SEC. 2. Section 1357 is added to the Fish and Game Code, to read: 1357. (a) The board may award regional landscape grants to regional entities to implement regional priority strategies developed pursuant to Section 4208.1 of the Public Resources Code. (b) Before the issuance of regional landscape grants pursuant to subdivision (a), the board, in collaboration with the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, shall establish guidelines for funding regional landscape grants pursuant to subdivision (a) to contribute to the achievement of the goals of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan issued in January 2021, and any subsequent updates to that plan developed pursuant to Section 4771 of the Public Resources Code. Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code shall not apply to the development and adoption of guidelines used for funding these grants. (c) For purposes of this section, “regional entity” has the same meaning as defined in Section 4208 of the Public Resources Code. SEC. 3. Section 4124 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 4124. For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply: (a) “Fire prevention activities” means those lawful activities that reduce the risk of wildfire in California, including, but not limited to, mechanical and manual vegetation management and modification, prescribed grazing, prescribed burns, creation of defensible space, creation of fuel breaks, ignition prevention, replacement of ignition-prone nonnative fuels or flashy fuels with less flammable vegetation, technologies that improve detection and assessment of new fire ignitions, and retrofitting of structures to increase fire resistance. (b) “Flashy fuels” means shrubs, grasses, and foliage, including, but not limited to, pine needles and leaves, that dry or cure rapidly, ignite easily, and spread fire quickly. (c) “Ignition prevention” means those lawful activities that reduce the likelihood of wildfire ignitions caused directly or indirectly by human activity or infrastructure, including replacement or modification of ignition-prone nonnative fuels or flashy fuels with less flammable vegetation, hardening of infrastructure, including primary roadways, utility corridors, and public access points, to prevent fire ignition and spread, use of ignition-resistant materials, and community education or planning programs that reduce human-caused ignitions. (d) “Nonnative fuels” means nonnative or invasive plant species, including grasses, shrubs, and other annual plants, and nonnative or invasive woody plant species. SEC. 4. Section 4124.5 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 4124.5. (a) The department shall establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities in California. Groups eligible for grants shall include, but are not limited to, local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps as defined in Section 14507.5, University of California Cooperative Extension, the Board of Commissioners under CaliforniaVolunteers described in Section 8411 of the Government Code, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations. The department may establish a cost-share requirement for one or more categories of projects. (b) (1) The local assistance grant program shall establish a robust year-round fire prevention effort in and near fire-threatened communities that focuses on increasing the protection of people, structures, and communities. To the maximum extent practicable, the grants shall be designed to be durable and adaptively managed so that while improving resiliency to wildfire, the projects, when on forest land, retain a mixture of species and sizes of trees to protect habitat values. The department shall prioritize, to the extent feasible, projects that are multiyear efforts. (2) For purposes of this subdivision, “fire-threatened communities” means those communities in high and very high fire hazard severity zones, identified by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 51178 of the Government Code, or Article 9 (commencing with Section 4201) of this code, or on the “Fire Risk Reduction Community” list maintained by the board pursuant to Section 4290.1. (c) Eligible activities shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following: (1) Development and implementation of public education and outreach programs. Programs may include technical assistance, new technologies, game elements to enhance and accelerate the education of property owners, workforce recruitment and training, and equipment purchases. (2) Fire prevention activities. (3) Projects to improve compliance with defensible space requirements as required by Section 4291 through increased inspections, assessments, and assistance for residents with relevant socioeconomic characteristics, as defined in Section 8654.7 of the Government Code. (4) Technical assistance to local agencies to improve fire prevention and reduce fire hazards. (5) Creation of additional “Firewise USA” communities in the state or other community planning or certification programs deemed as appropriate by the department. (6) Projects to improve public safety, including, but not limited to, access to emergency equipment and improvements to public evacuation routes. (7) Vegetation management and modification along roadways and driveways to reduce fire risk, including wildfire ignition risk. Where appropriate, the Department of Transportation shall be consulted if state infrastructure will be affected. Those projects shall remain consistent with paragraph (1) of subdivision (b). (8) Public education outreach regarding making homes and communities more wildfire resilient, including training on defensible space and prescribed grazing. (9) Projects to reduce the flammability of structures and communities to prevent their ignition from wind-driven embers. (10) Development of a risk reduction checklist for communities that includes defensible space criteria, structural vulnerability potential, and personal evacuation plans. (11) (A) Projects involving the application of prescribed grazing, which may include the installation of fencing or watering improvements. (B) Watering improvements described in subparagraph (A) shall not include the creation of a well or replacement of well infrastructure. (12) Ignition prevention activities. (d) The department may consider the fire risk of an area, the geographic balance of projects, and whether the project is complementary to other fire prevention or forest health activities when awarding local assistance grants. (e) When reviewing applications for the grant program created pursuant to this section, the department shall give priority to any local governmental entity qualified to perform defensible space assessments pursuant to Section 4291.5 in very high and high fire hazard severity zones, as identified by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 51178 of the Government [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]