Existing law authorizes a person, firm, or corporation, or a group or combination of persons, firms, corporations, or groups, that owns or controls brush-covered land, forest lands, woodland, grassland, shrubland, or any combination thereof within a state responsibility area to apply to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) for permission to utilize prescribed burning for specified public purposes. Existing law requires, on or before January 1, 2020, the Forest Management Task Force, or its successor entity, in coordination with the Department of Insurance, to develop recommendations for the implementation of an insurance pool or other mechanism for prescribed burn managers that reduces the cost of conducting prescribed fire while maintaining adequate liability protection for lives and property when conducting prescribed burns.

This bill would delete the provision requiring the task force to develop recommendations for the implementation of an insurance pool or other mechanisms for prescribed burn managers. The bill would establish, until January 1, 2028, the Prescribed Fire Liability Pilot Program, to be administered by CalFire, to increase the pace and scale of the use of prescribed fire and cultural burning, as defined, and to reduce barriers for conducting prescribed fires and cultural burning. The bill would create the Prescribed Fire Claims Fund in the State Treasury to support coverage for losses from prescribed fires and cultural burning by nonpublic entities, such as cultural fire practitioners, private landowners, and nongovernmental entities. The bill would require that, upon order of the Department of Finance, the $20,000,000 appropriated to CalFire by the Legislature in the Budget Act of 2021 be transferred into the fund, and would provide that all moneys deposited or transferred into the fund be continuously appropriated to CalFire for these purposes. By providing for the continuous appropriation of fund moneys to CalFire, this bill would create an appropriation. The bill would authorize CalFire to contract with any entity, including another state agency, such as the California Insurance Guarantee Association, to administer or assist in administering the fund, including managing and operating the fund, adjusting claims made pursuant to the fund, and paying claims from the fund, as provided. The bill would require CalFire to collaborate with other relevant state agencies, cultural fire practitioners, and burn bosses to establish guidelines governing the program and the administration of the fund and would prescribe minimum requirements for those guidelines. The bill would limit the state’s liability for all claims for covered losses established pursuant to the program and the guidelines adopted by CalFire to the amount in the fund.

Existing law creates the California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA) and requires all insurers admitted to transact specified insurance lines in this state to become members. Under existing law, CIGA pays and discharges covered claims, which are the obligations of an insolvent insurer that meet specified requirements. Existing law requires CIGA to operate pursuant to a plan of operations, and subjects that plan and its amendments to prior written approval of the Insurance Commissioner.

This bill would authorize CIGA, until January 1, 2028, to administer the Prescribed Fire Claims Fund, subject to prior written approval by the commissioner. The bill would grant CIGA the authority to handle losses arising from prescribed fires and cultural burning that are supported by the fund if the commissioner grants approval and CalFire contracts with CIGA for that purpose. The bill would limit the state’s and CIGA’s liability for losses arising from prescribed fires and cultural burning that are supported by the fund and associated costs to the amount in the fund.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.