California has fast-tracked more than 400 wildfire prevention projects across nearly 100,000 acres and released a draft five-year action plan aimed at strengthening wildfire resilience across the state, Governor Gavin Newsom has announced.
The accelerated projects follow Newsom’s March 2025 emergency proclamation intended to reduce catastrophic wildfire risks. State officials said the effort has advanced more than 220,000 activity acres of fuel reduction, forest restoration and community protection work while reducing project review timelines by a year or more for some complex projects.
Among the projects highlighted by the administration are a fuels reduction initiative protecting communities affected by the 2025 Los Angeles firestorms, a prescribed and cultural burning project in Humboldt County, and a nearly 3,000-acre fuels reduction effort in Siskiyou County.
The announcement also detailed actions taken to expand the use of prescribed and cultural burning statewide. California agencies have streamlined permitting processes, strengthened coordination with air quality regulators, expanded training programs and increased partnerships with Native American tribes and local organizations.
State officials said prescribed fire treatments in California have nearly doubled since 2021. CAL FIRE reported treating nearly 20,000 acres with prescribed fire under recent efforts, while California State Parks has treated more than 1,300 acres through an expanded prescribed fire program.
The state also pointed to the launch of its first Tribal Stewardship Policy in March 2026, which established a goal of expanding tribal stewardship across at least 7.5 million acres of land and coastal waters.
Separately, the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force released a draft Wildfire and Landscape Resilience Action Plan covering 2026 through 2031. The plan is intended to guide future wildfire prevention and landscape restoration efforts and is based on scientific research and collaboration among state, federal, tribal, local and private partners.
The draft strategy emphasizes community wildfire preparedness, home hardening, defensible space, strategically placed fuel breaks, forest thinning and expanded prescribed fire programs.
The public review period for the draft plan will remain open until Aug. 7, 2026, with a final version expected to be released in fall 2026.
The announcement comes as California continues to increase investment in wildfire resilience and emergency response. According to the governor’s office, more than $5 billion has been invested in wildfire and forest resilience efforts since 2019. The state said CAL FIRE has expanded its workforce over the past five years by adding an average of 1,800 full-time and 600 seasonal positions annually and plans to hire thousands more personnel in the coming years.
