Southern California Regional Area Safety Taskforce (RAST)

1. RAST Members and Stakeholders(as of March 2011) Members Federal Agencies Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) US Forest Service (USFS) State Agencies Cal Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Cal Fire Statewide Entities California Fire Safe Council University of California Cooperative Extension California Fire Alliance Local Agencies: County Agencies County of Los Angeles Fire Department County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works County of San Bernardino Public Works County of San Diego Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU) North (San Diego) County Fire Protection District Orange County Fire Authority Riverside County Emergency Management Association (EMA) San Bernardino County Fire Department County of Santa Barbara Planning Department Ventura County Fire Department Resource Conservation Districts (RCD) Elsinore Murrieta Anza Resource Conservation District (RCD) Inland Empire RCD Mojave Desert RCD RCD of Santa Monica Mountains RCD of San Diego County Riverside-Corona RCD South Coast RC&D Stakeholders AC/S Environmental Security City of Calabasas City of Loma Linda Fire Department Crawford Specialty Group Elemental Landscapes EPT Design Hills for Everyone Inter-Canyon League Fire Safe Council Irvine Ranch Conservancy Mason, Bruce & Girard, Inc. Mill Creek Canyon Fire Safe Council Mountain Rim Fire Safe Council RA Atmore & Sons, Inc. Rancho Cucamonga Fire Protection District Senator Mimi Walters Southwest Riverside County Fire Safe Council The Nature Conservancy Tikotsky & Associates Tom Nagatoshi Landscape Architects West Hills Fire Safe Council Partnerships Partnerships working at sub-regional levels include the Forest Area Safety Taskforce (FAST) in San Diego County and the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce (MAST) in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Southern California Regional Area Safety Taskforce (RAST) RAST is an Ad-Hoc group formed to speak with a unified, forward thinking voice to facilitate regional collaborative fire shed management, planning, and local implementation activities that foster safe sustainable communities. Members include invited entities from federal, state, and county governments, University of California Cooperative Extension, and other entities that work on regional, county or multi-county levels. In addition, other participants include Fire Safe councils and businesses that deal with related issues. 4

2. About • Quarterly Meetings • RAST meets on a quarterly basis • Two meetings per year are face-to-face with the location rotated around the region • Two conference calls are held per year • Working groups meet as necessary The need for Southern California Regional Area Safety Task Force (RAST) was identified as a result of a 2008 USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) sponsored inventory of projects for reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. The Southern California Rapid Watershed Inventory (RWI) was conducted in seven counties. The counties include Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego. The review of 10.8 million acres included private, local, state and tribal lands. (Most federal lands were excluded.) Approximately 5.5 million of the reviewed acres were considered to be at risk. A very high risk of fire was identified in approximately 250,000 acres.During the process of conducting the rapid watershed inventory, several public agencies and regional partners expressed an interest in working together to reduce the high risk of wildfire in the region. These partners and agencies were invited to a facilitated meeting in August 2008 (hosted by NRCS) to establish goals, objectives and a workplan for the ad-hoc RAST group. At the first meeting, a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) was created and leaders were selected to act as a steering committee for the group. A subsequent facilitated meeting was held in October 2009 to review the organization’s mission and workplan. Since early 2009, quarterly meetings and three annual Fire Summits have been held. Several work group committee meetings have also been held as needed e.g. to plan the Fire Summit. Projects Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) Authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill, the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) is a voluntary conservation initiative that enables the use of certain conservation programs along with resource of eligible partners to provide financial and technical assistance to owners and operators of agricultural and nonindustrial private forest lands. The primary objective of the CCPI is fuels management in privately owned forest and shrub land areas within the 7 counties listed above, map attached (page 5). The forested areas consist of Ponderosa (Yellow) pine, Big cone/Douglas fir, Incense cedar, Piñon, Juniper and oak woodlands. The foothills grass and shrub lands and their interface with the forest land are also an important component of fuels management plans. There are approximately 145,000 acres of forest land classified as private in the identified South Coast Bioregion. Southern California private forest lands are increasingly threatened due to fire, a host of other environmental impacts, human caused disturbances and climate conditions. The high elevation forested landscapes are an endangered habitat which have a major influence on ecosystem services for the entire Southern California communities of approximately 20 million people. The South Coast Bioregion forest lands are very important watersheds for the major cities and communities of Southern California. Degradation of the forest system will continue to degrade the water supply to these large metropolitan centers. Local CCPI Program Priorities: 1. Reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires 2. Improve water quantity and water quality to a multitude of critical watersheds 3. Restore burned forest ecosystems 4. Restore federally designated threatened and endangered species habitat 5. Increase forest sustainable conservation activities on tribal lands and economically/socially disadvantaged forest owners 6. Bioenergy infrastructure development Eligible conservation practices to be installed or implemented under the CCPI program will help return private forest and brush lands in the South Coast Bioregion to historical vegetation densities to be better suited for withstanding wild fires and improve forest health, soil and water quality, wildlife habitat and reduce soil erosion. For more information, contact your local NRCS field office. See the RAST website for a list of field offices in Southern California. Goals • The mission of RAST is to facilitate and improve interagency coordination. RAST serves to: • Unify the actions and strategies of numerous entities to meet the shared goal of healthy ecosystems and safe communities on a regional level. • Improve communication and coordination among local governments, educational institutions, nonprofits, and state and federal agencies. • Identify strategies to leverage information and resources to develop and implement effective fire and safety strategies. Visit the RAST website at: SoCalRAST.org RAST holds an annual Fire Summit and quarterly meetings each year. Events Fire Summits The Annual Fire Summit is one of RAST's largest collaborative efforts. The purpose of the Summit is to provide a forum on a regional level that brings together leaders, experts and organizations to improve coordination for community and natural resource protection from wildfire and other natural disasters. The first Summit was held at Cal Poly Pomona on February 4, 2009 with the theme "Coordinating Wildfire Management for Healthy Landscapes and the Communities.” The 2010 Summit's theme was "Living with Wildfire: Planning for the Future“ and was held at South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) headquarters in Diamond Bar, California on June 2. The Third Fire Summit was again held at AQMD on May 24, 2011. Its theme was "Living with Wildfire During Times of Economic Uncertainty." For more information on the previous Summits—and for the latest news on the upcoming 2012 Fire Summit—check the RAST website at www.SoCalRAST.org. Contact Information Administrative Entity: South Coast RC&D Council 2771 High Mead Cir Vista, California 92084 email: Southcoastrcandd@gmail.com 2