Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Awarded $1.5 Million for Regional Fire Prevention

LOS ANGELES (March 13, 2019) – The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy announced today that the California Natural Resources Agency and Department of Conservation had granted the Conservancy $1.5 million to prioritize, develop, and implement projects to strengthen fire resiliency, increase carbon sequestration, and facilitate greenhouse gas reductions in Southern California.

The grant from the State Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program is part of $20 million in block grants for local and regional fire resiliency projects statewide funded by Cap and Trade revenue through California Climate investments. Six regional block grants have been awarded throughout the state to ensure regional implementation.

“The recent Woolsey Fire was the most destructive fire ever seen in history in the Santa Monica Mountains,” said Joseph T. Edmiston, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. “These funds from the California Natural Resources Agency will go a long way to develop strategies with local partners to promote recovery in the burn areas, protect habitat, and prevent future catastrophes.”

The Conservancy has a proven track record of building strong partnerships with all levels of government, landowners, nonprofit, and community organizations and the ability to articulate and realize shared objectives. It is a long-time and active member of the Santa Monica Mountains Fire Safe Alliance, an umbrella group of government agencies and other affected groups convened by Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl to address environmental and community safety problems related to wildfire in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Conservancy has been recognized nationally, and internationally for its strategic planning processes which employ significant public input.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is a State Agency that was established by the Legislature in 1980. Since that time, it has helped preserve more than 75,000 acres of parkland in both wilderness and urban settings. The Conservancy’s mission is to strategically buy back, preserve, protect, restore, and enhance treasured pieces of Southern California to form and interlinking system of urban, rural, and river parks, open space, trails, and wildlife habitat that are easily accessible to the general public.