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 for permission to utilize a prescribed burning for specified public purposes. The Governor has issued an executive order relating to, among other subjects, the streamlining of permitting for landowner-initiated projects for the improvement of forest health and the reduction of forest-fire fuels on their properties. Pursuant to this executive order, a Forest Management Task Force involving specified state agencies has been convened.

This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to increase the pace and scale of the use of prescribed fire and to reduce barriers for conducting prescribed burns. The bill would require the Forest Management Task Force or its successor entity, on or before January 1, 2020, and 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.