What the bill actually changed
Senate Bill 675, signed into law in September 2024, added prescribed grazing explicitly to the list of fire-prevention activities eligible for local assistance grants under California's wildfire-prevention grant programs — meaning grazing projects can now be funded through the same grant channels that pay for other fuel-reduction work, rather than being treated as an unusual or unfunded option.
The bill also directed the state's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to develop a statewide strategic action plan specifically for expanding the use of prescribed grazing, which signals a longer-term policy commitment beyond just funding eligibility.
Why this matters beyond the funding technicality
Before formal recognition like this, grazing sat in something of a gray zone in state grant language — fundable in practice at some agencies' discretion, but not explicitly named the way mechanical treatment or hand-crew work was. Explicit statutory language removes that ambiguity for grant administrators and makes prescribed grazing a much easier line item for a city or fire district to defend in a funding application.
For property owners and public agencies, the practical effect is that a well-written grant application can now cite SB 675 directly to justify a prescribed-grazing budget line — something covered in more detail in our guide to grants that pay for goat grazing.