SECTIONS 4475-4480 - California Statutes

PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE

SECTION 4475-4480

4475. (a) The director may enter into an agreement, including a
grant agreement, for prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel
reduction that is consistent with this chapter and the regulations of
the board with either the owner or any other person who has legal
control of any property or any public agency with regulatory or
natural resource management authority over any property that is
included within any wild land for any of the following purposes, or
any combination of those purposes:
(1) Prevention of high-intensity wild land fires through reduction
of the volume and continuity of wild land fuels.
(2) Watershed management.
(3) Range improvement.
(4) Vegetation management.
(5) Forest improvement.
(6) Wildlife habitat improvement.
(7) Air quality maintenance.
(b) An agreement shall not be entered into pursuant to this
section unless the director determines that the public benefits
estimated to be derived from the prescribed burning or other
hazardous fuel reduction pursuant to the agreement will be equal to
or greater than the foreseeable damage that could result from the
prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel reduction.

4475.1. The director, with the approval of the Director of General
Services, may enter into a master agreement with federal land
management agencies to conduct joint prescribed burning operations on
wild lands and federal lands where these operations serve the public
interest and are beneficial to the state. This master agreement
shall be known as the Multiagency Agreement for Cooperative Use of
Prescribed Fire and shall establish guidelines for the cooperative
management of joint prescribed burning operations. The master
agreement shall require the completion of a project agreement for
each individual prescribed burn which shall include the following:
(a) A list of all participants.
(b) A joint prescribed burn plan.
(c) A display of the project costs to be assumed by each
participant.
(d) A summary of the benefits to be received by each participant.
(e) An apportionment of suppression cost to each participant in
the event a wildfire escapes from the project.
Project costs to be assumed by each agency or cooperator shall be
based on the benefits received by each participant. The apportionment
of suppression cost shall be based on the following:
(1) The benefits received by each participant.
(2) The amount at risk of each participant.
(3) The cost to produce the desired benefits received by each
participant.
(4) The total acreage included by each participant.

4475.5. (a) The state may assume a proportionate share of the costs
of site preparation and prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel
reduction conducted pursuant to this article on wild lands other than
wild lands under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The
state's share of those costs shall bear the same ratio to the total
costs of the operation as the public benefits bear to all public and
private benefits to be derived from the prescribed burning operation
or other hazardous fuel reduction, as estimated and determined by the
director. The state's share of the costs may exceed 90 percent of
the total costs of the operation only if the director determines that
no direct private economic benefits will accrue or will be utilized
by a person that owns or controls any property under contract
pursuant to Section 4475.
(b) The board shall adopt regulations establishing standards to be
used by the director in determining the state's share of these costs
and in determining whether, pursuant to Section 4475, the public
benefits of a prescribed burning operation or other hazardous fuel
reduction will equal or exceed the foreseeable damage therefrom.
(c) The determination of public and private benefits pursuant to
this section shall reflect any substantial benefit to be derived from
accomplishing any of the purposes specified in Section 4475 and the
prevention of degradation of air quality.
(d) All or part of these costs to be borne by the person
contracting with the department may be met by the value of materials,
services, or equipment furnished by that person directly, or
furnished by that person pursuant to an agreement with a private
consultant or contractor, or furnished by a combination of both
means, that are determined by the department to be suitable for the
preparation for, and the conduct of, the prescribed burning operation
or other hazardous fuel reduction.
(e) The director may accept grants and donations of equipment,
materials, or funds from any source for the purpose of supporting or
facilitating the prescribed burning or other hazardous fuels
reduction work undertaken pursuant to this chapter. The director may
waive the cost sharing requirements of this chapter if the funding
source prohibits cost sharing requirements.

4476. Any contract which is entered into pursuant to this article
shall do all of the following:
(a) Vest in the director the final authority to determine the time
during which wild land fuel and structural fire hazards may be
burned to minimize the risk of escape of a fire set in a prescribed
burning operation and to facilitate maintenance of air quality.
(b) Clearly state the obligation of each party to the contract to
provide, maintain, and repair equipment and indicate the number of
each type of equipment to be provided and the duration of its
availability.
(c) Designate an officer of the department as the fire boss with
final authority to approve and amend the plan and formula applicable
to a prescribed burning operation, to determine that the site has
been prepared and the crew and equipment are ready to commence the
operation, and to supervise the work assignments of departmental
employees and all personnel furnished by the person contracting with
the department until the prescribed burning is completed and all fire
is declared to be out.
(d) Specify the duties of, and the precautions taken by, the
person contracting with the department and any personnel furnished by
that person.
(e) Provide that any personnel furnished by a person contracting
with the department to assist in any aspect of site preparation or
prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel reduction shall be an
agent of that person for all purposes of workers' compensation.
However, any volunteer recruited or used by the department to
suppress a wild land fire originating or spreading from a prescribed
burning operation is an employee of the department for all purposes
of workers' compensation.
(f) Specify the value assigned to the materials, services, or
equipment furnished by the person contracting with the department in
lieu of payment of all or part of that person's share of the actual
costs.
(g) Specify the total costs of the prescribed burning operation or
other hazardous fuel reduction and the pro rata share thereof for
each party to the contract. Any person contracting with the
department shall, prior to the commencement of any work by the
department, place on deposit in an interest-bearing escrow or trust
account with a California-licensed financial institution an amount
equal to that person's pro rata share of the costs, less the value of
materials, services, or equipment specified pursuant to subdivision
(e). Interest earned on the account shall accrue to the depositor and
may be separately disbursed from the principal amount upon request
of the depositor. Disbursement of funds on deposit in the trust or
escrow account shall be authorized by the depositor within 15 days
after completion, to the depositor's satisfaction, of all work
specified in the contract to be done by the department.
(h) Provide that the department may, in its discretion, purchase a
third-party liability policy of insurance that provides coverage
against loss resulting from a wild land fire sustained by any person
or public agency, including the federal government. The amount of the
policy, if purchased, shall be determined by the director. The
policy shall name the person contracting with the department and the
department as joint policyholders. The premium shall be included as a
cost prorated as provided in subdivision (g). A certificate of
insurance, if purchased, covering each policy shall be attached to or
become a part of the contract. If the department elects not to
purchase insurance, the department shall agree to indemnify and hold
harmless the person or public agency contracting with the department
with respect to liability arising out of performance of the contract.

4477. If the amount of moneys due the state are not paid as
provided in subdivision (e) of Section 4476, such amount shall become
a lien upon the property.
(a) Notice of the lien shall be recorded by the department in the
office of the county recorder of the county in which the property is
situated within one year.
(b) An action to foreclose the lien shall be commenced by the
Attorney General in the name of the people of the State of California
within six months after the lien is filed and recorded.
(c) When the property is sold, enough of the proceeds to satisfy
the lien and the costs of the foreclosure shall be paid to the state
and the surplus, if any, shall be paid to the owner of the property.

4478. All moneys received by the department pursuant to this
article shall be credited to the department's current support
appropriation as a reimbursement.

4479. Liability for any costs incurred by the department in
suppressing any wildland fire originating or spreading from a
prescribed burning operation conducted pursuant to a contract entered
into pursuant to this article shall be governed by subdivision (b)
of Section 13009 of the Health and Safety Code.

4480. In any area of the state where there are substantially more
requests for prescribed burning operations or other hazardous fuel
reduction pursuant to this article than can be conducted directly by
the department in a single fiscal year, the director may, with the
approval of the Director of Finance, enter into an agreement with
private consultants or contractors or with other public agencies for
furnishing all or a part of the state's share of the responsibility
for planning the operation, preparing the site, and conducting the
prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel reduction. The private
consultant or contractor or other public agency, and the work
assignments of its employees, shall be supervised by the fire boss
when conducting prescribed burning operations, or designated officer
of the department when conducting other hazardous fuel reduction, as
provided in subdivision (c) of Section 4476. No agreement may be
entered into pursuant to this section unless the director determines
that it will enable the prescribed burning operation to be conducted
at a cost equal to, or less than, the cost that would otherwise be
incurred by the state.