The California Legislature released the final budget language late on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. CalTrout remains critical of the unnecessary delay in releasing critical budget items like emergency drought funding, wildfire relief, and climate resilience packages. As water curtailment orders go live throughout the state, the legislature is still waiting to officially approve these critical funding packages to combat the effects of climate during this year’s especially dry drought conditions.

Despite these real and unavoidable consequences of a slow legislative process, CalTrout remains optimistic as state government is poised to inject over $8.8 billion in drought preparedness, climate resilience, and fire preparedness funding. This large injection of natural resource funding was made possible by the fact that California oversaw a $50 billion surplus and successful advocacy from strong promoters, including the individuals on CalTrout’s own policy team, in directing a large portion of these funds towards protecting our natural water resources.

Members of the State Assembly meet at the Capitol in Sacramento, California. Photo credit: Rich Pedroncelli, AP.

Here is a breakdown of funding:

• Drought Package: Provides $4.6 billion over three years to respond to drought conditions and invest in a more resilient water future with funding for water recycling, sustainable groundwater management, cleaning up toxic contaminants, restoration of the Salton Sea and Clear Lake, and flood prevention.
• Wildfire Prevention: In addition to the $536 million early action package, the budget provides $988 million for wildfire prevention and forest health in fiscal year 2021-2022. This equals a $1.5 billion investment in this year alone to protect California’s communities and wildlands from historic wildfires exacerbated by climate change and drought conditions. This budget also extends the state’s commitment to funding these efforts in the future by continuously appropriating $200 million a year from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund until fiscal year 2028-2029.
• Climate Resiliency Package: Provides $3.688 billion over three years to make needed climate resiliency investments, or about $2.5 billion more than what was proposed in the Governor’s May Revision. A $369 million down payment in this fiscal year provides funding to help plan for regional adaptation investments, plant trees to reduce extreme heat and increase air quality, and build healthy and sustainable communities with the Transformative Climate Communities program. Future investments will respond to extreme heat, build community resource centers, address sea level rise, and help reach California’s commitment to conserve at least 30 percent of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030.

CalTrout advocated for a myriad of funding efforts central to our mission, such as funding to state agencies. Natural resources agencies, like the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Wildlife Conservation Board, then operate grant programs to provide funding to non-profit organizations, such as CalTrout to implement our large-scale conservation and restoration projects across the state.

Here are a couple highlights on funding to agencies:

• $105 million to support fish passage and wildlife corridor projects.
• $33 million for fisheries and wildlife support.
• $323 million to fund water and drought programs.
• And notably, $12.5 million for the removal of dams to preserve the federally endangered southern steelhead trout. (Check out CalTrout’s work on the removal of Rindge Dam.)

Also, $40 million was awarded for the Outdoor Equity Grants Program (OEP), operated by California State Parks. OEP will increase the ability of residents in low income urban and rural communities to participate in outdoor experiences at state parks and other public lands. Many barriers exist that disproportionately impact historically marginalized communities from the benefits of experiencing nature. CalTrout is in full support of the OEP initiative. (See our statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.)

CalTrout is committed to ensuring that all of these state funds are put to their best possible use and we will keep our membership informed about the exciting projects this budget will fund over the next three years.