Applicant Eligibility

At the most basic level, a participant is eligible to participate if they meet the following criteria:

• The applicant is the landowner or another agent (land manager, forester) with the approval of the landowner to apply. Properties held in a Trust and LLCs are also eligible applicants.
• The property is forestland containing any of the following vegetation types: oak woodland, redwood forests, mixed evergreen, ponderosa pine.
• The property is at least five (5) acres and less than 500 acres. (Note: Individual nonindustrial landownerships encompassing 3 to 5000 acres of forest land are eligible for Forest Management Plans funding via CAL FIRE’s Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force’s Small Private Landowner Working Group block grant.)
• The applicant has not already received funding through Proposition 68 for forest improvements on their property; this includes funding through the California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP) since 2018.
• The applicant can afford the treatment after incentive payment. For more on program incentive payments and project costs, please see Payment Rates and Covered Activities.

Project Eligibility

Projects under NBFIP are only eligible if they include one or more of the following activities:

• Preparation of a Forest Management Plan by a Registered Professional Forester (RPF)
• The project area must be at least one acre in size
• Reforestation activities, such as
  • Site preparation
  • Tree purchase and planting
  • Tree shelters
• Forest stand improvement activities, such as
  • Shaded fuel breaks
  • Douglas fir encroachment removal
  • Thinning “release” treatments
  • Pruning
• Follow-up fuel hazard reduction activities, such as mastication/chipping or pile-burning.

A Good Fit

Though these qualities are not required, an applicant is a good fit for the program if they match the following description.

• Applicant is committed to the sustainable management of their forestland
• Applicant has developed a forest management plan or other guiding document with a forester and has identified management units and planned treatments. Environmental review has been completed to satisfy the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

• Applicant would not be able to implement treatments without the financial support of the incentives program