Washington, D.C. (June 16, 2021)—The American Forest Foundation, a national conservation organization that works to deliver conservation impact through the empowerment of family forest owners, releases the following statement in response to the California State Legislature passing the state’s 2021-2022 budget.

American Forest Foundation (AFF) President and CEO, Tom Martin said:

“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. The investment in wildfire prevention and resilience that the state is making in forest health will be critical to supporting California’s 200,000 family forest owners in reducing wildfire risk on their lands. This budget will have wide-reaching benefits for the state’s economy, infrastructure, and public health and safety.

Family forest 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 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.

We applaud the state’s plan to invest $1 billion in wildfire prevention and resilience over the coming year and look forward to seeing the detailed spending proposals to be released in the coming weeks.”

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