As the threat of catastrophic wildfire continues, state leaders turned their attention to Marin County, where fire managers recently put on display a voter-approved wildfire prevention authority designed to lower risk.

The California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force convened in San Rafael for a three-day conference last week to discuss the devastation in Southern California and to learn about work in Marin to protect the community from conflagrations.

“One of the reasons why we wanted to locate our task force meeting in Marin is the remarkable work that’s actually happening on a community scale,” said state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, co-chair of the task force.

The task force held a series of panel discussions at the Embassy Suites in San Rafael on March 29. More than 400 attended in person and more than 300 tuned in online.

The task force was created by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office in 2020 after consecutive years of calamitous wildfires across the state. The Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, which put on the conference with FireSafe Marin, was formed after the passage of Measure C that year.

The parcel tax brings in about $20 million annually for prevention, education and forest management projects.

“I think it’s fair to say we’re fortunate here in Marin that our voters did support this overwhelmingly,” said Marin County fire Chief Jason Weber.

Following voter approval, a strategic plan was developed in 2021 to steer the work of the authority. The plan outlines goals around vegetation management; detection, alert and evacuation; grants; public outreach and education; and defensible space and home hardening.

Authority Executive Director Mark Brown said officials have highlighted home hardening because fire resilient homes make stronger neighborhoods.

Part of the effort includes the agency’s home inspection program. Brown said more than 60,000 properties have been inspected through the program.

About 48% of residents who participated agreed to a full 360-evaluation of their properties, Brown said. Residents who walk with inspectors are 60% more likely to make corrective action after an evaluation, Brown said.

This year, the agency committed about $2.55 million to support resident grant programs to create the “zone zero” home hardening and defensible space, which focuses on the first 5 feet around houses, he said.

“Every dollar that we’re putting into our residents, our residents are putting between $6 and $7, so now we are getting that synergistic effect with all that work,” Brown said.

The authority offers a “chipper day” program, in which communities can sign up to have yard waste mulched into woody debris. Brown said last year they conducted nearly 4,700 pickups and collected about 15,000 cubic yards of materials.

Brown said the authority already has 1,500 signups this year as more residents are getting into an annual routine.

“I think we’re driving a culture change,” he said.

The authority also is leading large scale projects such as the Ross Valley shaded fuel break, an envisioned 34-mile line of defense that crosses 11 jurisdictions. After 18 months of work, 22 miles have been completed, Brown said.

The conference comes after Marin groups were awarded $10.9 million in funding for forest health improvement and wildfire prevention projects. The funding includes a $6.9 million Cal Fire forest health grant and a $4 million California Coastal Conservancy Grant. The money was awarded to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and One Tam, a coalition of government and nonprofit agencies that manage land in Marin.

Claire Mooney, vice president of park projects and conservation at the conservancy, was among the conference panelists.

Mooney said through the One Tam partnership “our open space agencies are able to do what they do best, which is focus on the health and restoration of our forests, and our fire agencies are then able to focus on the risk reduction and fire prevention.”

“In doing that together, we’re able to develop both more resilient communities and more resilient forests,” Mooney said.

Officials presented an overview of the state task force’s action plan for 2025, which includes increasing the pace and scale of forest health projects, among other goals. They also covered Newsom’s proclaimed state of emergency, which suspends environmental regulations, including the California Environmental Quality Act and the Coastal Act, as needed to expedite fire prevention and fuels reduction projects.

Leaders and graduates of the Marin FIRE Foundry workforce development program discussed the program’s success. The program hires and trains fire recruits from underrepresented populations, while supporting them through course work at College of Marin.

The third day of the conference featured tours of project sites throughout Marin, including in China Camp State Park in San Rafael, where crews conducted prescribed burns to clear out flashy fuels.

California Fire Safe Council Executive Director Jacy Hyde moderated the panel with Marin fire officials.

“The L.A. fires have forced us once again to ask how we’re investing our limited resources to make that greatest impact on public safety,” Hyde said.

“There’s a real opportunity here to layer an array of funding sources to support those strategic and coordinated investments in the highest risk areas,” Hyde said. “Marin presents a compelling example of a coordinated approach and the steady progress you can make when your residents engage and invest in their community’s resilience.”