The Californer - California launches streamlined online permitting process to fast-track critical wildfire safety projects

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Apr 17, 2025

California launches streamlined online permitting process to fast-track critical wildfire safety projects

What you need to know: Following Governor Newsom's state of emergency proclamation to protect communities from catastrophic wildfire, a new online fast-track process now makes it faster to get state-level approvals – in as little as 30 days – for critical forest and vegetation management projects.

SACRAMENTO – A new online streamlining request process cuts bureaucratic red tape and now makes it faster to get state approval to implement forest and vegetation management projects, which are critical to reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. This new process will shorten project approvals to as little as 30 days – saving a year or more of review and red tape for more complicated projects.

This builds on consecutive years of intensive and focused work by the State of California to confront the severe ongoing risk of catastrophic wildfires, and most recently Governor Newsom's emergency proclamation. Full information on project eligibility and the suspension request form are available here.

The new process to accelerate critical wildfire safety projects advances some of the essential actions identified in the Governor's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force's ambitious 25 key deliverables for 2025, and builds on statewide efforts to move fast to prepare communities ahead of peak wildfire season by promoting key safety measures such as hardening homes and creating defensible space.

Peak fire season is still ahead of us, yet this year has already been marked by some of the most destructive wildfires in California's history. We need to move faster and go bigger.

This new streamlined process, which builds on historic investments and nation leading actions to confront catastrophic wildfires, cuts red tape to fast-track more wildfire projects than ever before.

Governor Gavin Newsom

Faster permitting without compromising environmental protections

The new process will allow practitioners across the state to move faster without compromising important environmental protections. A new Statewide Fuels Reduction Environmental Protection Plan (EPP) has been developed to enable critical wildfire safety projects to proceed expeditiously while protecting public health and the environment. The EPP requires applicants to comply with best management practices and measures to minimize impacts to environmental resources while completing fuels reduction projects, ensuring the safeguarding of water and air quality, tribal cultural resources, and special-status species and their habitats.

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Expanding prescribed and cultural fire

In addition to streamlining permitting, leaders from across the state have already come together in response to the Emergency Proclamation to start developing recommendations on specific actions to expand and expedite the implementation of prescribed and cultural fire. On April 11, a virtual briefing provided an overview on the execution of the Proclamation and provided the public an opportunity to share recommendations for expanding beneficial fire.

Building on unprecedented progress

New, bold moves to streamline state-level regulatory processes builds 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.

Highlights of achievements to date include:

Historic investments — Overall, the state has more than doubled investments in wildfire prevention and landscape resilience efforts, providing more than $2.5 billion in wildfire resilience since 2020, with an additional $1.5 billion to be allocated from the 2024 Climate Bond.
On-the-ground progress — More than 2,200 landscape health and fire prevention projects are complete or underway, and from 2021-2023, the State and its partners treated nearly 1.9 million acres, including nearly 730,000 acres in 2023.
Increasing transparency — The Governor's Task Force launched an Interagency Treatment Dashboard to display wildfire resilience work across federal, state, local, and privately managed lands across the State. The Dashboard, launched in 2023, provides transparency, tracks progress, facilitates planning, and informs firefighting efforts.
Hardening communities — Adding to California's nation-leading fire safety standards, Governor Newsom signed an executive order to further improve community hardening and wildfire mitigation strategies to neighborhood resilience statewide. Since 2019, CAL FIRE has awarded more than $450 million for 450 wildfire prevention projects across the state and conducts Defensible Space Inspections on more than 250,000 homes each year.
Leveraging cutting-edge technology — On top of expanding the world's largest aerial firefighting fleet, CAL FIRE has doubled its use of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) and the state is utilizing AI-powered tools to spot fires quicker.

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