Background:
The California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP), developed by the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board), is a critical component of the state’s multi-faceted strategy to address California’s wildfire crisis. The CalVTP defines the vegetation treatment activities and associated environmental protections to reduce the risk of loss of lives and property, reduce fire suppression costs, restore ecosystems, and protect natural resources as well as other assets at risk from wildfire. The CalVTP supports the use of prescribed burning, mechanical treatments, hand crews, herbicides, and prescribed herbivory as tools to reduce hazardous vegetation around communities in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), to construct fuel breaks, and to restore healthy ecological fire regimes.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) has the primary responsibility for implementing proposed CalVTP vegetation treatments, though many local, regional, and state agencies could also employ the CalVTP to implement vegetation treatments if their projects are within the scope of the CalVTP (see Final PEIR, Chapter 2, Program Description). The CalVTP will allow CAL FIRE, along with other agency partners, to expand their vegetation treatment activities to treat up to approximately 250,000 acres per year, contributing to the target of 500,000 annual acres of treatment on non-federal lands as expressed in Executive Order (EO) B-52-18.

The Board has prepared a Final Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR), which evaluates the environmental impacts of the CalVTP in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Board certified the Final PEIR and approved the CalVTP on December 30, 2019.

For more information, visit this link: https://bof.fire.ca.gov/projects-and-programs/calvtp-homepage/