County and Public Lands Coordination

1. County and Public Lands Coordination Abating the Public Safety Threat from Catastrophic Wildfires Ray A. Haupt Siskiyou County Supervisor District 5

2. A County’s Influence on the Public Lands Why Work with Public Lands Agencies? How To Work with the Public Lands Be Proactive - Communicate New legislation Must be Passed and Maintained Work with Federal and State Elected Officials to support legislative fixes to old laws. Budget support Work with Federal and State Elected Officials to pass Fire Suppression reform Work with Federal Elected Officials to support budgets critical to vegetation management. Support the work of your local forest programs through: Filing Amicus briefs on NEPA litigated projects. Advocate the County’s position through planning processes and direct contact with agency decision makers. Form Collaborative working groups so there is a record before the public and court system that this work is important to your electorate and it effects them directly. Use your Coordination powers as a County in Planning. Support your local Fire Safe Councils and other advocacy groups who interface the agencies. Hold the agency accountable Review their work annually and provide feedback to them. Communicate the agencies successes and failures to your elected officials regularly. Take Full Opportunity of Agency Agreements to advance the safety of your Citizens, the County’s future and Your Economy. • 25% Forest Receipt Collections • Designed to offset for of lost property taxing authority but requires management outputs for success (Siskiyou County historically $8.5 million/yr.) Siskiyou County Specific • Jobs • For every 1 MMBF Harvested 16 jobs are created. • Economy • Every dollar spent in the Timber Industry multiplies 5 times in the local economy • Key destinations for Recreation Industry • Grazing Program key to continuance of Ranch Base Properties in County • Wildfire Smoke • In 2018, breathing the air was equivalent to smoking ten cigarettes a day in our County. 37 days unhealthy and very unhealthy smoke days from July to September In Yreka, worse in other areas closer to forest • Recreational loss approximately $2M in 2018 • Agricultural losses in Alfalfa quality and quantity with a total Mint crop loss • Total wine grape crop loss due to smoke tainted fruit. • Wildfire Infrastructure Economic Loss of recent years Siskiyou County • Closure of I-5 closes off commerce Regionally • Road Damage repair costs from fire, winter debris slides and tree debris affect budgets • 14 structures destroyed in Gap Fire , 82 buildings destroyed in Klamathon Fire, 1 civilian death , $2M loss of Towns Water System. “Rural Communities remotely situated away from large metropolitan areas struggle to exist”, NWFP Review 2013

3. Modifying Fire Behavior at Two Scales Home Owner Scale Defensible Space

4. Modifying Fire Behavior at Two Scales Landscape Scale Large Fire Behavior Modification

5. Fuels Specific Forest Management Tools Available to CountiesBrief List of Recent Key Legislative Activity Federal Legislation and Authorizations • 2003 Healthy Forest Restoration Act • 2014 Appropriations Act • 2014 Farm Bill • 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act, Farm Bill • 2018 Omnibus Spending Bill • 2018 Presidential Executive Order #13855 • 2018 DOI Secretarial Order #3372 • Numerous Appropriations Acts Fuels Reduction Grants, Departments of Agriculture and Interior, State and Private Forestry Programs California State Legislation and Authorizations • California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Fuels Reduction Funds source) • SB-1260 Fire Prevention and Protection-2018-addresses prescribed burns/hazardous fuels zones • Executive Order B-62-18, Jan 04, 2019, Establishes Governors Forest Task Force Interagency/Jurisdiction Fuels Prioritization and Funding, $225M/yr. • SB 901, Utility Corridor Hazard Plans and General Fuels Reduction Funds – Creates a $1B 5 year fuels reduction fund. • Numerous Exemptions under the CA Forest Practice Act to reduce regulation for fuels work • 2019 Programmatic CEQA Fuels Project EIR, Statewide (Forest Task Force)

6. Good Neighbor Authorizing LegislationBLM and USFS 2014 Appropriations Act 2014 Farm Bill Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 Agreements Expanded to Include Counties Native American Tribes Removal of 2014 Restrictions and Limitations Now Includes Infrastructure Improvement Roads • Allows the agencies to enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with States and Puerto • Allows States to perform watershed restoration and forest management services on Public lands. • Under GNA, a state may offer its expertise and help to: • Increase the agencies management capacity by supplementing staffing to facilitate the pace and scale of activities. • Develop contracts for timber sales by jointly designing projects backed by local collaboratives. • Develop forest projects that address, forest health, watershed restoration and increase public safety.

7. 2018 Significant Legislative UpdatesActivity following the 2017 Fire Season 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act, Farm Bill Presidential Executive Order #13855 and DOI Secretarial Order #3372 DOI/Ag to implement policies to reduce hazardous fuel loads, mitigating fire risk and ensuring the safety and stability of local communities through active management.   Prioritize fuel reduction treatments as part of forest and rangeland management activities. Pursue benefits to rural economies by encouraging productive uses of forest by-products. Collaborate with state, tribal, and counties to create a comprehensive wildfire strategy that prioritizes the highest-risk lands, considers regulatory and economic challenges related to managing DOI and U.S. Forest Service lands and encourages local economic growth through timber and biomass sales. Establish specific forest and rangeland management objectives. DOI shall establish a goal of treating 750,000 acres for fuels reduction and 500,000 acres to protect water quality and mitigate erosion and flooding risks resulting from forest fires. USDA shall establish a goal of treating 3.5 million acres of USFS land for fuels reduction and 2.2 million acres to address water quality and post-fire erosion and flooding. DOI/BLM instructed to offer for sale 600 million board feet USDA/USFS instructed to offer for sale 3.8 billion board feet of timber.   USDA and DOI are instructed to coordinate with other federal agencies and streamline relevant administrative and regulatory processes including ESA Consultation • Competitive grants for: • Landscape-scale, restoration on state lands through the State and Private Forestry Landscape Restoration Fund • Amends HFRA to include cross-boundary fuels reduction projects (USFS and BLM). • USFS/BLM hazardous fuels funding $660 million through 2023 .  • Amends HFRA to allow “extraordinary circumstances” for Categorical Exclusion (USFS only).  • Good Neighbor Authority to include Tribes and Counties • GNA allows State Agencies to do work on Federal Lands. • Timber innovation including research and development of the use of “mass timber”

8. Good Neighbor Use Requirements Implementation Authority Qualifying Areas Areas designated under Section 8204 must meet one or more of the following criteria: Area is experiencing decline of forest health based on annual forest health surveys. The area is at risk of substantial tree mortality over the next 15 years based on the National Insect and Disease Risk Map. The area is one in which hazard trees pose imminent risk to public infrastructure, health or safety • Section 8204 of the Agriculture Act of 2014 • Secretary shall not later than 60 days after enactment If requested by the Governor of the State, designate • One or more landscape-scale areas • In at least one national forest in each State experiencing an insect or disease epidemic. • After the 1st 60 day period: • Secretary may designate additional areas as needed if requested.

9. Good Neighbor Authority California Designated Areas Initial Designation Additional Request

10. Master Stewardship Authorizations Section 604 (16 USC 6591c) of Public Law 108-148 as amended by Section 8205 of Public Law 113-79, the Agricultural Act of 2014 • The land management goals for a project may include: • Road and trail maintenance or obliteration to restore or maintain water quality. • Soil productivity, habitat for wildlife and fisheries, or other resource values. • Use of prescribed fires to improve the composition, structure, condition, and health of stands or to improve wildlife habitat. • Vegetation Removal or other work to promote healthy forest stands, reduce fire hazards, or achieve other land management objectives. • Watershed restoration and maintenance. • Restoration and maintenance of wildlife and fish. • Control of noxious and exotic weeds and reestablishing native plant species A very Broad and all encompassing list of agreed upon work

11. GNA/MSA Policy Use At The County LevelSiskiyou County Design Collaborative Panels Master Stewardship Agreements Develop Cooperative Agreements for BLM and USFS Public Lands Addressing GNA requests Siskiyou County working on Joint Cooperative Agreements with Shasta Trinity & Klamath NF’s CAL Fire Siskiyou Unit currently executing a MSA with USFS within Craggy Project joint DPA County Master Agreements collaborate to include large Industrial Timber owners for Landscape Fuels and restoration work Agreements include third party monies. Agreements reinvest product sale money into future projects. Funding Sources CA Carbon Credit Grants Tuolumne County and Siskiyou County using funds for County administrative expenses of agreement formation. 2018 Omnibus Bill earmarks $550M for Hazardous Federal Agency Fuels Programs CA State Task Force Clearing House , $225M in Hazardous Fuels Money • County Public Lands Grazing Panel • Promote Public Land Grazing Operations • Expertise to support programs/permittees during NEPA/Litigation. • Forest Collaborative Panel for Public Lands • Promote active Public Land Management. • Expertise to support programs during NEPA/Litigation. • Fire Safe Counsels • Formed under HFRA Authorities • Develop CWPP’s for “Communities At Risk” Designations • County Wide Fire Safe Counsel • Community Fire Safe Counsels (27)

12. Do you have a Comprehensive Response OrganizationThat Protects your Public, When an Emergency Occurs?

13. Incident Management Response OrganizationsSiskiyou County Operations Incident Management Team (IMT) Incident Commander 54 personnel Key Contacts Operations Section Chief Liaison Officer Logistics Chief Finance Chief County Incident Operations Center Key Positions County Sherriff Office of Emergency Services Health and Human Services Auditor/Finance County Administrator • Community Liaison Program • Key Positions • Community Liaison • Fire Safe Counsel • City Officials • Local Fire Departments • County Supervisor General Public and Local Residents

14. Siskiyou County California Questions? Ray A. Haupt County Supervisor, District 5 Retired USFS CA RPF#2938