Wildfire Prevention Grants Program: wildfire mitigation validation

The law creates a voluntary statewide validation program for community-scale wildfire mitigation. It links recognition to potential grant access while barring recognition alone from being used to change insurance practices.

What the law does ​

• Requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to create the validation program with the State Fire Marshal’s Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee.
• Sets recognition benchmarks for home hardening, defensible space, Firewise USA status, nearby fuel reduction and maintained green space, and other science-backed measures.
• Requires objective, verifiable, periodically reviewed criteria supported by public methods and data, with rising mitigation thresholds to encourage continued preparedness.
• Allows recognized communities, beginning in fiscal year 2028–29, to receive Wildfire Prevention Grants Program funding through a fire safe council or other eligible organization.
• Allows preference for disadvantaged recognized communities under the department’s existing disadvantaged-applicant procedures.
• Prohibits recognition by itself from supporting insurance rates, underwriting changes, catastrophe-model changes, or mitigation credits.

Who it affects ​

• Communities seeking voluntary state recognition for wildfire preparedness.
• Fire safe councils and eligible local, tribal, conservation, and nonprofit groups that apply for and manage grants for recognized communities.
• Residents and property owners participating in home-hardening, defensible-space, and other community mitigation efforts.

Context ​

Grant funding for recognized communities may begin in fiscal year 2028–29.