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California: Following LA fires, Governor Newsom extends key provision to fast‑track wildfire safety window, protecting more communities across the state

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Dec 31, 2025

Following LA fires, Governor Newsom extends key provision to fast‑track wildfire safety window, protecting more communities across the state

What you need to know: Governor Newsom issued an emergency proclamation on March 1 to streamline wildfire prevention projects following the Los Angeles firestorms, and today he extended a key provision to maintain momentum on that work. To date, California has fast-tracked more than 200 wildfire safety projects statewide, with approvals now happening in as little as 30 days instead of a year or more.

SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that California will continue moving faster than ever to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk by extending a key provision allowing for wildfire safety projects to qualify for the state's fast‑track forest management program through May 1, 2026. This targeted action keeps a proven emergency tool focused on one goal: using the full rainy season to safely complete more fuels reduction and beneficial fire projects that protect communities, forests, and critical infrastructure.

When we created this fast‑track forest management program, the goal was simple: cut through bureaucracy, honor our commitment to environmental values, and move faster to protect Californians from catastrophic fire. This order grants communities, tribes, and land managers additional time to get projects in the door so we can use the full rainy season for safe, science‑driven fuels reduction and beneficial fire.

Governor Gavin Newsom

Keeping California's fast‑track program moving

Nearly one year after launching California's expedited forest management initiative under the March 1, 2025 State of Emergency, the Governor is extending  the central provision of the March 1 proclamation that governs when projects must begin in order to use the streamlined process.

Previously, qualifying projects had to be "initiated" in the calendar year 2025. Under today's action, eligible projects may now be initiated through May 1, 2026, allowing communities, tribes, resource conservation districts, utilities, and other partners to keep bringing forward high‑priority projects under the fast‑track pathway, particularly during the rainy season that is prime-time for beneficial fire projects to take place.

Over 200 wildfire projects approved in weeks instead of years

Following Governor Newsom's wildfire emergency proclamation, state agencies, including the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency, have coordinated to streamline permitting and cut red tape for high-priority wildfire-safety projects while maintaining essential environmental protections. Through this fast-track process, projects are now being approved in as little as 30 days, saving a year or more of review time for more complex projects. This has helped local governments, tribes, resource conservation districts, electrical utilities, and non-profits secure permits quickly, enabling critical safety projects to be implemented on-the-ground faster than ever before.

To date, 218 projects covering more than 40,000 acres have been approved statewide and half are already underway or have been completed. There are 50 approved projects in Southern California, including 10 projects covering nearly 1,000 acres in Los Angeles County.

Notable projects include:
  • A 600-plus-acre fuels reduction project led by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority near the Palisades Fire footprint in Los Angeles County.
  • The nearly 3,000-acre Scott Valley–Callahan Fuels Reduction and Forest Resiliency Project in Siskiyou County is removing hazardous fuels and creating strategic fuel breaks to protect local communities.

The state is ensuring full transparency into all projects approved for fast-tracked permitting through this easy-to-navigate online dashboard.

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California delivers environmental protection and speed

The streamlined process allows practitioners to move faster without compromising important environmental protections. California state agencies are diligently reviewing wildfire projects to ensure the state maintains its nation-leading environmental standards without adding bureaucratic hurdles to critical safety projects that will protect the state's nearly 40 million residents and diverse natural landscapes.

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 on environmental resources while completing fuels reduction projects, thereby safeguarding water and air quality, tribal cultural resources, and special-status species and their habitats.

Using the rainy season to fight fire with fire

Many of the most effective tools for reducing wildfire risk, especially beneficial fire, can only be safely deployed during cooler, wetter months. Beneficial fire includes prescribed burns and cultural burns that are carefully planned and monitored to clear excess vegetation, restore forest and woodland ecosystems, and protect communities from extreme fire behavior in the summer and fall.

Extending the deadline for eligible projects to May 1, 2026 is specifically designed to capture the full rainy season, when:
  • Cooler temperatures and higher fuel moisture reduce the risk that planned burns will escape.
  • Atmospheric conditions make it easier to manage smoke in ways that protect public health.
  • Crews can safely implement larger and more complex fuels reduction projects without competing with peak fire‑response demands.

This action aligns with California's broader strategy to dramatically expand the safe use of beneficial fire as a core tool for both wildfire prevention and climate resilience. It complements the Governor's recent direction to CAL FIRE and partner agencies to streamline beneficial fire permitting, deepen collaboration with tribal communities, and integrate beneficial fire into long‑term forest and landscape resilience planning.

Part of a comprehensive wildfire strategy

Today's order is one piece of California's broader effort to tackle the wildfire crisis from every angle — prevention, response, and recovery. Since 2021, the state has invested billions of dollars in wildfire prevention and forest resilience, expanded cutting‑edge technologies that help firefighters respond faster and more safely, and forged unprecedented partnerships with federal, tribal, and local governments, as well as private and non‑profit landowners.

The fast‑track forest management program has become a critical backstop as other streamlining tools have been constrained by litigation, helping the state avoid a return to the fragmented, slow‑motion review system that left communities exposed in past decades. By using a transparent, time‑limited framework with clear environmental sideboards, the Newsom Administration is:
  • Reducing near‑term wildfire danger in high‑risk communities.
  • Protecting lives, homes, and critical infrastructure.
  • Improving forest health and watershed resilience in the face of a hotter, drier climate.
  • Creating a bridge to a durable, long‑term regulatory framework for forest health and fuels reduction that will outlast any single emergency order.

A copy of the executive order can be found here.

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