As Trump cuts fire response, Governor Newsom expands the state’s fire prevention strategy using proven beneficial fire techniques 

SACRAMENTO – Building on recent progress to implement beneficial fire as a wildfire risk reduction tool, Governor Gavin Newsom today signed an executive order directing state agencies to reduce red tape and expand tools to safely deploy prescribed fire. While the Trump administration put the nation in harm’s way by cutting critical funding for wildfire risk reduction efforts, California continues to lead the way.  The Governor’s action helps ensure that California does not miss the critical fall weather window to conduct prescribed burns. 

Building on Governor Newsom’s emergency proclamation signed in March to fast-track forest and vegetation management projects throughout the state, today’s executive order directs a suite of actions to fast-track critical work in the coming months.  The order supports collaborative efforts to update prescribed fire permitting, address air quality concerns associated with smoke and enable resource conservation districts and other entities to carry out prescribed fire projects.  The Governor is also directing state agencies to provide immediate on-the-ground support to local governments and fire practitioners to maximize use of beneficial fire in the coming months. 

The action comes against a backdrop of a federal government shutdown that has hindered federal prescribed burns, and where President Trump’s gutted U.S. Forest Service has deprioritized critical wildfire prevention efforts, with 25% of positions outside of direct wildfire response already cut.  

A proven strategy, thousands of years in the making

Wildfire is a natural and integral part of California’s environment. California Native American tribes and cultural practitioners have utilized cultural fire since time immemorial to manage lands for ecological and cultural objectives. This managed fire regenerates plant life, supports hunting and gathering, reduces dangerous wildfire, manages temperatures to support fisheries, and continues important cultural practices. Scientific studies indicate that prior to 1800, millions of acres of California lands were burned by tribal communities each year. 

Over the last two centuries, these tribal cultural fire practices were outlawed by state and federal authorities, leading to immense harm and disruption in the lives of California Native Americans. This fundamental shift in land management also resulted in far less managed wildfire and contributed to densely packed forests and landscapes that heighten catastrophic wildfire risk due to exclusion of wildfire. In recent decades, fire professionals and land managers have realized the importance of beneficial fire activities and these practices have been reintroduced at modest levels. These projects have demonstrated clear benefits in the form of reduced wildfire risk and improved landscape health.  

“For thousands of years, tribal communities have utilized fire to keep our forests healthy,” said California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “Now we’re following their lead to use safe, controlled fire to protect our communities and restore heath to our environment. This is a watershed moment for California as we fully embrace these practices successfully used for centuries to help prevent catastrophic wildfire.”

Beneficial fire encompasses cultural fire practices to protect public safety and safeguard natural and cultural resources. Prescribed fire describes intentional and managed burning by qualified professionals ranging from CAL FIRE personnel to certified experts. Managed fire refers to managing unintentional ignitions for benefits such as biodiversity, forest resilience and community protection.  

Expanding the use of beneficial fire reduces risks of large, catastrophic wildfires and restores California’s fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems. Studies have documented that active use of beneficial fire reduces the intensity of future wildfires, which in turn reduces fire suppression costs while increasing protection for communities. Beneficial fire preserves and restores biodiversity, maintains healthy hydrologic systems that provide water supplies, and protects tree and plant life that store carbon pollution.  

Recognizing these benefits, the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force issued California’s Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire in 2022 that set an ambitious state and federal goal to treat up to 400,000 acres with beneficial fire annually by 2025. More recently, California’s Nature-Based Solutions Climate Targets issued in April 2024 set a target of applying beneficial fire to 1.5 million acres a year by 2045 to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk and achieve the state’s climate goals. 

“Cultural and prescribed burns offer proven strategies for managing wildfire risks across our state’s unique ecosystems,” said Secretary for Environmental Protection Yana Garcia. “As Trump’s EPA abandons its responsibility to protect public health, California will intensify its fight to protect communities from the devastating effects of climate change. This includes upholding time-honored practices that have safeguarded our people and natural resources for generations.”

Fighting fire with fire 

The Governor’s executive order helps strengthen and build on California’s wildfire prevention strategy by:

• Accelerating funding and projects: Distributes funding to resource conservation districts and other eligible government agencies in advance of beneficial fire work, as well as creates more simplified grant funding processes. 
• Expanding local participation: Removes policies and regulatory roadblocks that would make it more difficult for local agencies to engage in this work, including suspending the state law that prohibits resource conservation districts and volunteer fire departments from participating in the Prescribed Fire Liability Claims Fund Pilot Program. 
• Working with tribal communities: Directs state agencies to continue prioritizing tribal consultation, access, collaboration, and co-management—so we can work together to expand and support cultural burning and other forms of tribal stewardship.
• Increasing education and data: Directs CARB to create new modeling and related technologies, such as the Prescribed Fire Information Reporting System (PFIRS), and make this technology available to support air districts’ efforts to promote fast, efficient and low-cost permitting, and expands training opportunities for beneficial fire practitioners. 
• Mitigating air quality risks: Increases collaboration and creates new best practices that provide beneficial fire practitioners consistent permitting and smoke management plan guidance while protecting public health and communicating potential smoke impacts to the public, and create guidance for local communities.

This adds to a strong statewide strategy to protect communities and resources by preventing and fighting wildfires. In late May, the Governor announced $72 million for projects across the state that help reduce catastrophic wildfire risk. Additionally, 159 new vegetation management projects spanning 33,000 acres across the state  have already been approved for fast-tracking under the Governor’s new streamlining initiative.  Additionally, to bolster the state’s ability to respond to fires, Governor Newsom announced that the state’s second C-130 Hercules airtanker is ready for firefighting operations, adding to the largest aerial firefighting fleet in the world.  

New, bold moves to streamline state-level regulatory processes builds on long-term efforts already underway in California to increase wildfire response and forest management in the face of a hotter, drier climate. 

A full list of California’s progress on wildfire resilience is available here. 

Expanding wildfire prevention

California’s use of beneficial fire has expanded in recent years thanks to the work of tribal, state, federal, local, and nonprofit partners. Specific points of progress include:

• Prescribed fire treatments in California nearly doubled between 2021 and 2023. Federal, state, and local agencies completed 260,000 acres of prescribed fire treatments in 2023.   
• In May, CAL FIRE, for the first time ever, met and exceeded its 50,000-acre goal for beneficial fire as outlined as a goal within the California Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire. This was accomplished even with the Park Fire in late 2024 and the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles.  
• As of June, CARB,  in close coordination with the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association, has held over 20 prescribed fire training sessions for stakeholders to discuss smoke management, public information, and tools and technology related to prescribed fire.  
• In 2021, CARB released California Smoke Spotter — a critical tool to inform the public of air quality impacts from wildfire and prescribed fire smoke.
• The Governor and Legislature established a first-in-the-nation Prescribed Fire Liability Claims Fund in 2022 backed with $20 million in state funding, to accelerate beneficial fire on private lands by covering losses in the rare instance that a prescribed or cultural burn escapes control.  
• In September 2024, Governor Newsom signed SB 310, which reduces barriers for California Native American tribes to conduct cultural burns in their ancestral territories. The Karuk Tribe and the California Natural Resouces Agency (CNRA)  entered into the landmark SB 310 Cultural Fire agreement in February 2025. Out of this effort, the Tribe and CNRA have developed a template agreement for other tribes to utilize educational materials to support government-to-government collaboration in advancing cultural fire.  
• In September 2024, Governor Newsom signed SB 1101, which streamlines CAL FIRE’s contracting and procurement process to support beneficial fire.
• In August 2023, the Governor’s Wildfire and Task Force launched an Interagency Treatment Dashboard that provides transparency on the location of completed beneficial fire projects.  
• CAL FIRE’s Prescribed Fire Monitoring Program released the first version of a manual outlining field monitoring protocols in 2023 to assist land managers with unit selection, data collection, tools and technologies, data storage, and analysis procedures.

This executive order builds on the collaborative work between the state and California Native American tribes to co-manage natural lands, as outlined by the Governor’s Statement of Administration Policy on Native American Ancestral Lands. That policy, along with other collaborative land restoration and rehabilitation projects, encourages increased tribal land stewardship practices that will help manage wildfire risk while restoring ecological health. Some of this work is supported by the historic Tribal Nature-Based Solutions grant program, which was developed in collaboration with tribes as part of the state’s efforts to address historical wrongs. The grant program supports tribal priorities, and can be used for ancestral land return, restoration, workforce development, implementation of Traditional Ecological Knowledges and tribal expertise, habitat restoration, and climate and wildfire resilience projects.