Stern, Bloom Announce $12 Million In Fire Prevention Grants

AGOURA HILLS, CA — Friday was a big day for Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills - not only did its proposed wildlife bridge receive a $25 million challenge grant from the Annenberg Foundation, it hosted a who’s who of local politicians at a gathering to announce $12 million in funding to prepare for the upcoming fire season.

Senator Henry Stern (D-27) and Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-50) announced that $12 million of Gov. Newsom’s $536 million statewide Wildlife Prevention Early Budget Action Funding Plan will go towards fire resiliency grants to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. The conservancy plans to introduce coordinated efforts to reduce the risk of wildlife, strengthen wildlife resilience, increase carbon sequestration, and dedicate more resources to local community infrastructure.

“We finally succeeded in making the case to the governor and the rest of California that our fire problems in this region are unique - that we must focus on home and community hardening, public land management, and restoring the power of native ecologies in our chaparral by removing invasive grasses,” Stern said. “While prescribed fire and dead tree clearance may work in the northern redwood forests, that’s not going to prevent the next Woolsey Fire.”

The conference was held at the heart of what firefighters call the 101 Fire Corridor, a four-mile stretch of land where the 101 meets the Simi Hills, and Santa Ana wind-driven fires can jump the freeway and head towards the coast. In 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned the entire 101 Freeway Fire corridor.

Stern and Bloom planted live oak trees to add to a recently planted oak grove designed to help limit the movement of wildfires. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy plans to plant a dozen new oak groves, along with miles of select clearance of grasslands full of non-native species that help accelerate fire.

The conference was also attended by, among many others, Agoura Hills Councilmember Illece Buckley Weber, former senator, assemblymember, and Agoura Hills Councilmember Fran Pavley, Malibu Councilmember Mikke Pierson, and Calabasas Councilmember Mary Sue Maurer, who helped obtain a $450,000 Wildfire Prevention Early Budget Action Grant to bolster the emergency capabilities of the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center.

That grant will go towards getting a generator, communications equipment, and structural improvements so that it can operate as a backup emergency operations center for Calabasas and surrounding communities in case other EOCs are made unavailable during the disaster. The City of Calabasas is adding another $100,000 to help finish the project, the city announced Friday.