Recognize the statewide benefits that healthy forests can provide by maintaining at least the current level of funding-$ 280 million annually-for projects to improve forest health.✓ Improve and Increase Funding and Coordination. These recommendations encompass both larger actions as well as some more moderate steps that we believe could help achieve improved outcomes.

We make various recommendations to improve the health of the state’s forested watersheds. Moreover, the scale of the improvement projects that are currently taking place is relatively small compared to the identified need. While broad consensus exists about both the problematic conditions of the state’s forests and the types of activities needed to address them, the pace of making the needed improvements is slow. Such conditions have contributed to more prevalent and severe wildfires and unprecedented tree mortality in recent years, and experts are concerned these trends will continue if steps are not taken to significantly improve the health of the state’s forests. However, a combination of factors have resulted in poor conditions across these forests and watersheds, including excessive vegetation density and an overabundance of small trees and brush. These forests also provide critical air, wildlife, climate, and recreational benefits. Roughly one‑third of California is forested, including the majority of the watersheds that serve as the key originating water source for millions of people across the state. Forests Provide Critical Statewide Benefits, but Poor Conditions Put Those Benefits at Risk.

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