Biological resources are a substantive focus when preparing and implementing a Project-Specific Analysis (PSA) under the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has collected feedback about how to support efficient CalVTP use, and to this end, has recently released the CalVTP Resource Library, a set of new tools and resources to increase efficiency. The Resource Library features example PSAs, Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program Implementation Tools, and updated Frequently Asked Questions. The example PSAs cover a variety of geographies, treatment types and activities, and environmental issues throughout the state. Implementation tools provide organizational and planning aids focused on biological resources to achieve the goal of increasing the pace and scale of critical wildfire resilience treatments while protecting sensitive resources. These resources highlight specific challenges that have been encountered during the preparation of PSAs and approaches to resolving these issues, such as vegetation treatment within sensitive natural communities, maintenance of habitat function for special-status species, and the required agency coordination process.

Grace Mannell is a Wildfire Resilience Planner with 11 years of experience in terrestrial field biology and environmental consulting. She specializes in wildfire risk reduction projects, avian ecology, and CEQA compliance. She has managed biological compliance for wildfire resilience and prevention projects for agencies throughout California. Grace has experience in focused and protocol-level sensitive species surveys, habitat assessments, environmental compliance monitoring, and project management. She works extensively on Project-Specific Analyses for the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) and supported the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection in preparation of the CalVTP Resource Library.