California Board of Forestry & Fire Protection

Join key researchers, land managers, and Registered Professional Foresters from the California Department of Conservation, Hamey Woods, San Vicente Redwoods, the Board of Forestry & Fire Protection's Effectiveness Monitoring Committee to hear about past, current, and planned research into the effectiveness of the Forest Practice Rules and related regulations, including sediment monitoring and fish habitat, accelerated wood recruitment, and post-fire effects on Redwood. Visit the Effectiveness Monitoring Committee’s webpage for more information:

REGISTER HERE

The Effectiveness Monitoring Committee’s (EMC) 2025/26 Request for Proposals (RFP) is now open, and Grant Guidelines may be viewed in the attached file, in the Request for Proposals, on the EMC’s webpage, and on the State’s Grant Portal. Initial Concept Proposals are due Monday, May 19, 2025.

Funding available for newly proposed projects is anticipated as follows: $928,334 over three Fiscal Years beginning in 2025/26, comprising:

• $188,202 in FY 2025/26
• $315,132 in FY 2026/27
• $425,000 in FY 2027/28

The EMC is an advisory body to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board), intended to fund robust scientific research aimed at testing the efficacy of the California Forest Practice Rules (FPRs) and other natural resource protection statutes, laws, codes, and associated regulations. The EMC creates an active feedback loop to policymakers, managers, agencies, and the public by facilitating the transfer of research results to inform policy by working with Project Investigators to produce white papers, publish scientific reports and journal articles, and present policy implications to the Board for consideration. The FPRs and related policies and regulations address a variety of natural resource issues including, but not limited to, watershed science, wildlife concerns, and wildfire hazard. As a result, projects funded by the EMC span a wide array of topics and approaches but are generally focused on timberlands and rangelands in California, consistent with the Board’s jurisdiction.

The California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is seeking nominations for the 2025 Francis H. Raymond Award. The annual award is given to the individual, organization, agency or company who has contributed the most to the management of California’s natural resources over the past five years.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection seeks to fill up to four (4) vacancies on the Effectiveness Monitoring Committee (EMC). See the Call for Applications for more information. Interested parties may send inquiries or a Letter of Interest and current Resume or CV to Kristina.Wolf@bof.ca.gov. See the current membership roster for details about the current membership.

For the latest information on Defensible Space - Zones 0, 1 & 2, click: HERE!

The Effectiveness Monitoring Committee (EMC) revises the Strategic Plan in a 5-year cycle. The Strategic Plan was updated and approved by the Board of Forestry & Fire Protection on March 6, 2025. Read the 2025 Strategic Plan Update HERE.

The Board will hold a hearing at their meeting on March 5 to accept public comments on the proposed 2025 changes to the State Responsibility Area boundaries. Please see https://bof.fire.ca.gov/projects-and-programs/state-responsibility-area-viewer/ for more information.

The EMC revised its Charter in late 2024. Read the updated version HERE.

This report quantifies forest biomass piles accumulated from 2018 – 2021 and provides an inventory of forest biomass pile material potentially available for wood and biomass utilization.  It offers details on the number of forest biomass pile burn permits issued from 2018 - 2021 by CA air district to provide information about open pile burning, prescribed burning, and the total acreage and tonnage of burn piles in CA. Highlights include potentially 150,000 acres of available forest biomass piles, representing approx. 1 million tons of material in piles currently on the landscape, with 78% of it occurring on public lands. Nineteen percent is accessible via existing road networks.

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection announces the release of new tools for efficient California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) implementation and Project-Specific Analysis (PSA) preparation. Find all the information, including links to the updated CalVTP webpage, example PSAs and PSA/Addenda, new FAQs, and implementation tools, here: Information on the CalVTP Resource Library

A goal of the Effectiveness Monitoring Committee (EMC) is to develop a process-based understanding of the effectiveness of the California Forest Practice Rules (FPRs) and other natural resource protection statutes and laws, codes and regulations. To facilitate an Adaptive Management process that informs proposed changes to forestry policy and regulations, the EMC supports research that addresses twelve core research themes. Aligned with these research themes, the EMC has developed a set of Critical Monitoring Questions (CMQ) to guide prospective grantee research questions and help direct EMC funding focus. The research themes and CMQs provided in this document—initially adopted in 2017 and presented in the 2018 Strategic Plan were updated in 2024.