American Forest Foundation Applauds California Assemblymember Laura Friedman on the Introduction of the Resolution on Wildfire Mitigation

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 12, 2021) – The American Forest Foundation (AFF), a national organization that delivers meaningful conservation impacts by empowering family forest owners to take action on their land, applauds California State Assemblymember Laura Friedman for her introduction of Assembly Concurrent Resolution 33 (ACR 33).

“Addressing the wildfire crisis in California requires a new approach to reducing wildfire risk and increasing resiliency across a patchwork of lands that are owned by a range of public and private owners,” said Rita Hite, Executive Vice President for Policy and External Relations at AFF. “The introduction of ACR 33 is a step toward making those contributions a reality. We look forward to working with Assemblymember Friedman and other legislative and executive branch leaders to continue supporting California’s 200,000 family forest owners in completing wildfire risk reduction projects on their lands. These projects will have wide-reaching benefits for the state’s economy, infrastructure, and public health and safety.”

Family forest owners are critical to several sectors of California’s economy, from forest products, like paper and timber, to outdoor recreation. These landowners manage over seven million acres of the state’s woodlands and want to implement risk reduction projects on their lands, but often lack the resources required to see a project through from start to finish. According to California’s recently released Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, “Significantly increasing the pace and scale of forest management across the state can only be achieved through significant contributions from small private landowners.”

ACR 33 commits the state to investing in science-based wildfire mitigation strategies and convening private and public stakeholders to ensure risk reduction is achieved across the state. The Resolution affirms the support of the California State Assembly for finding solutions to the state’s wildfire crisis, representing a step forward for California family forest owners that have been impacted by increasingly catastrophic wildfires in recent years.

Learn more about the resolution with this Fact Sheet on ACR 33 and the Text of the Resolution.

Learn more about AFF’s Work to Reduce Wildfire Risk in California.

Contact: Elizabeth Greener; (202) 253-1096; egreener@forestfoundation.org

About the American Forest Foundation

The American Forest Foundation (AFF), a forest conservation organization, works exclusively to empower family forest owners to make a meaningful conservation impact around wildlife habitat, clean water, carbon sequestration and storage and sustainable wood supplies. We work across a broad coalition of conservation partners, corporations, and policymakers to empower family forest landowners and make sure everybody understands, supports and values the work of these landowners. Learn more: forestfoundation.org