California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Update

This is a Notice of Preparation of a Subsequent Program Environmental Impact Report for the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Update. In 2019, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board) certified the Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the CalVTP (SCH# 2019012052). The 2019 CalVTP Program EIR covers specific treatment activities: prescribed burning (pile burning and broadcast burning), mechanical treatments, manual treatments, herbicide application, and prescribed herbivory. It also evaluates specific treatment types: wildland-urban interface (WUI) fuel reduction, fuel breaks (shaded and nonshaded), and ecological restoration. The geographic scope of the 2019 Program EIR encompassed a treatable landscape of 20.3 million acres within the State Responsibility Area (SRA) in California. On March 1, 2025, Governor Newsom issued an emergency proclamation that, among other actions, directed the Board to take immediate steps to update the 2019 CalVTP Program EIR, in consultation with the California Natural Resources Agency and others, to increase the CalVTP’s efficiency and usefulness in expanding and accelerating the rapid environmental review of large-scale vegetation treatment projects. In response to the Governor’s emergency proclamation, the Board is preparing a Subsequent Program EIR (SPEIR) to update the 2019 CalVTP Program EIR to increase its efficiency and usefulness, which includes expanding the geographic scope of the CalVTP and instituting other program revisions. The Board is the lead agency pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the CalVTP Update SPEIR. The Board is distributing this notice of preparation (NOP) to seek input from responsible and trustee agencies and other interested parties regarding the scope and content of the environmental information to be included in the CalVTP Update SPEIR. This NOP initiates a 40-day public comment period, from January 9, 2026 to February 18, 2026. Program Location The geographic scope of the 2019 CalVTP Program EIR, or treatable landscape, was developed using data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (CAL FIRE) Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) to identify areas in the SRA suitable for vegetation treatment. Certain vegetation types were excluded from the treatable landscape because the wildfire risks within these types were considered in 2019 to be negligible. Using this method, 20.3 million acres within the 31 million-acre SRA were identified as being appropriate for vegetation treatments as part of the 2019 CalVTP. The CalVTP Update will expand the treatable landscape to portions of the state suitable for vegetation treatment regardless of fire suppression responsibility designation (e.g., expand into the Local Responsibility Area; federally owned and Tribal lands will still be excluded). The expanded treatable landscape will be developed based on more recent vegetation data and improved understanding of fire behavior to include more areas in California. The updated treatable landscape is anticipated to encompass more than 35.5 million acres, representing an increase of at least 15.2 million acres from the treatable landscape considered in the 2019 CalVTP Program EIR. Program Description According to the Board’s experience with CalVTP implementation and feedback received from project proponents, implementing entities, regulatory and resource agencies, and others since the Program EIR was certified at the end of 2019, the following categories of updates have been preliminarily identified. This list is not comprehensive, and more updates to the program will be identified through planned outreach as directed by the emergency proclamation and as required under CEQA. - Expand the treatable landscape into areas suitable for vegetation treatment regardless of fire suppression responsibility designation. - Broaden allowable activities related to the disposition of biomass generated by vegetation treatment. - Recognize the dual objectives of cultural and ecological restoration through vegetation management activities that integrate tribal ecological knowledge. - Expand the list of herbicides that may be used. - Streamline regulatory compliance and permitting. - Clarify and revise CalVTP standard project requirements and mitigation measures to promote their efficient implementation while protecting environmental resources. - Increase the efficiency of the Project-Specific Analysis preparation process for later activities under the CalVTP.