BILL NUMBER: AB 1300 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 29, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 6, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Fletcher
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
An act to add Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 4310) of Part 2
of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, relating to fire
protection.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1300, as amended, Fletcher. Fire protection: fuels reduction
grant program.
Existing law creates the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection within the Natural Resources Agency, and the department is
responsible for fire protection, fire prevention, maintenance, and
enhancement of the state's forest, range, and brushland resources,
contract fire protection, associated emergency services, and
assistance in civil disasters and other nonfire emergencies.
This bill would authorize the department to develop and implement
a fuels reduction program that provides competitive grants or other
financial incentives to communities located in the wildland-urban
interface or very high fire hazard severity zones to conduct fuels
reduction efforts that minimize the risk or decrease the intensity of
a wildfire in or around a community. Cities, counties, districts,
and nonprofit organizations would be authorized to receive the
grants. The bill would require the department to develop criteria for
the review and approval of grant applications, that may include the
establishment of cost sharing cost-sharing
requirements and appropriate oversight and reporting
requirements.
This bill would require that an eligible community meet certain
specified criteria and put limitations on the size of trees
that could be removed and prohibit those trees from being made into
logs of lumber . The bill would require the department to
seek funding from specified sources, not including the General Fund,
that the program funding used by the department for reasonable and
necessary administrative expenses not exceed 5% of the funding
source, and that the department report to the Legislature
yearly , and post the report on its Internet Web
site.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 4310) is added to
Part 2 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, to read:
CHAPTER 3.1. FUELS REDUCTION GRANT PROGRAM
4310. (a) (1) The department may develop and implement a fuels
reduction program that provides competitive grants or other financial
incentives to communities located in the wildland-urban interface or
very high fire hazard severity zones, as defined in Section 51177 of
the Government Code, to conduct fuels reduction efforts that
minimize the risk or decrease the intensity of a wildfire in or
around a community.
(2) Wildfire risk may include those posed by insect pests or plant
diseases injurious to timber, or forest growth.
(3) The department may structure a grant or offer additional
incentives to offset the costs of transporting fuels to a biomass
energy facility.
(b) (1) Grants may be made to cities, counties, districts, and
nonprofit organizations. The department shall develop criteria for
the review and approval of grant applications that may include the
establishment of cost sharing requirements and appropriate oversight
and reporting requirements.
(2) The department may waive or reduce the cost sharing
requirements for projects that directly benefit or occur in a
disadvantaged community or if the funding source prohibits a cost
sharing requirement. The cost sharing requirement may be provided in
the form of cash, in-kind services or materials, or any combination
of those, as determined by the department.
(c) To the extent applicable, the department may use or rely on
guidelines, funding criteria, fuels reduction or treatment area
priorities, assets at-risk designations, or other elements of similar
fuels reduction or vegetation management programs pursuant to, for
example Article 2 (commencing with Section 4475) of Chapter 7 or
Chapter 1.696 (commencing with Section 5096.600) of Division 5, when
developing a fuels reduction grant program.
(d) An eligible community shall meet all of the following criteria
and any other criteria the department deems appropriate.
(1) Be a wildland-urban interface community at high risk of
wildfire, as defined on page 752 et seq. of Number 3 of Volume 66
(January 4, 2001) of the Federal Register, as amended. Also, for
purposes of this paragraph, "wildland-urban interface community at
high risk of wildfire" means an area having one or more structures
for every five acres.
(2) Be designated as a "Firewise" community or have a community
wildfire protection plan approved by the department.
(3) Have a plan approved by the department or State Fire Marshal
to reach full compliance with defensible space requirements pursuant
to Section 4290.
(4) Partner with a community-based nonprofit organization that has
among its primary objectives wildfire prevention, planning, or
education.
(e) A grant that funds the removal of trees less than 16
inches in diameter at breast height from a firebreak or fuel break
shall meet the requirements specified in subdivision (b) of Section
4527. Trees that are removed shall not be processed into logs or
lumber.
(f)
(e) (1) The department shall seek funding for the fuels
reduction grant program from new state, federal, or private funds
dedicated to fire prevention efforts, to the extent the funds are
available for those efforts.
(2) The program shall not be funded through the General Fund.
(g)
(f) Funds received for the program may be used to cover
reasonable and necessary administrative expenses of the department
but shall not exceed 5 percent of the funding source.
(h)
(g) (1) If the department develops and implements a
fuels reduction grant program, it shall report to the Legislature no
later than 12 months after the program's initiation, and every 12
months thereafter, including a summary of the amount of grants
awarded, grant recipients, funding sources, program accomplishments
and effectiveness, and any legislative or other recommendations.
(2) The department shall post this report and other program
materials, as appropriate, in a conspicuous location on its Internet
Web site.