BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1504
                                                                  Page  1

          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 1504 (Skinner)
          As Amended  August 17, 2010
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |43-28|(January 27,    |SENATE: |24-12|(August 31,    |
          |           |     |2010)           |        |     |2010)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:   NAT. RES.  

           SUMMARY  :  Requires the California Department of Forestry and  
          Fire Protection (CDF, or CALFIRE), in consultation with the Air  
          Resources Board (ARB), by March 1, 2011, to assess the capacity  
          of its forest and rangeland regulations to meet or exceed the  
          state's greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction  goals, pursuant to the  
          California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32).

           The Senate amendments  remove the requirement that a timber  
          harvesting plan (THP) must estimate carbon dioxide emissions  
          from timber operations.  Senate amendments also require any  
          studies contracted for by either ARB or CDF to be paid for with  
          fees generated by AB 32.  

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Requires ARB, pursuant to AB 32, to adopt a statewide GHG  
            emissions limit equivalent to 1990 levels by 2020 and adopt  
            regulations to achieve maximum technologically feasible and  
            cost-effective GHG emission reductions.  ARB is required to  
            adopt and update every five years a scoping plan for achieving  
            these reductions from sources or categories of sources.

          2)Requires CDF, pursuant to the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice  
            Act (Act) of 1973, to create and maintain a comprehensive  
            system of regulation of all timberlands to assure that: where  
            feasible, the productivity of timberlands is restored,  
            enhanced, and maintained and; the goal of maximum sustained  
            yield of high-quality timber products is achieved while giving  
            consideration to values relating to recreation, watershed,  
            wildlife, range and forage, fisheries, regional economic  
            vitality, employment, and aesthetic enjoyment.
           
          AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill:








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          1)By March 1, 2011, required CDF, in consultation with ARB, to  
            assess the capacity of its forest and rangeland regulations  
            and non-regulatory forestry programs to meet or exceed the  
            state's GHG reduction goals.  At a minimum, CDF must consider:

             a)   Whether relevant statutory or regulatory requirements  
               governing a timber harvesting plan, sustained yield plan or  
               its equivalent, non-industrial timber management plan, or  
               any other discretionary approval for timber harvesting are  
               sufficient to ensure a net reduction or sequestration of  
               carbon emissions from primary forest carbon sources, sinks  
               or reservoirs;

             b)   Whether regulations governing conversion of timberland  
               and forestland, as defined, to non-timber and non-forest  
               uses are sufficient to offset lost sequestration capacity  
               and carbon emissions associated with the non-timber use;  
               and,

             c)   Whether forest growth, harvest and conversion  
               information obtained through CDF's regulatory and  
               non-regulatory programs and other local, state and federal  
               sources is sufficient and reliable to track changes in  
               carbon stocks, including net emissions and reductions,  
               across the state's forested landscape.

          2)By December 1, 2010, CDF must publish a draft assessment,  
            including any recommendations, for a 30-day public review and  
            comment period.

          3)Required ARB, in consultation with CDF, to convene an  
            independent panel of no less than three qualified experts to  
            peer-review the draft assessment.  At least two experts shall  
            be selected from academia.  CDF must incorporate the panel's  
            findings or recommendations or describe in writing the  
            reasons, based on substantial evidence, for rejecting a  
            finding or recommendation.

          4)Defined "net reduction or sequestration of carbon emissions"  
            to mean an increase in carbon stocks over time of a primary  
            forest carbon source, sink or reservoir compared to a  
            baseline.

          5)Defined "primary forest carbon source, sink or reservoir" to  








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            include standing live or dead trees, soil, shrubs and  
            herbaceous understory, lying dead wood, litter, duff, and  
            forest products.

          6)Is contingent upon receipt of sufficient funding from the ARB  
            pursuant to its AB 32 fee revenue authority or any other  
            public or private source.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee, this bill would require a one time cost of $800,000  
          to $1 million to the General Fund for reviewing or updating  
          existing regulations.

           COMMENTS  :  According to the author's office, this bill is  
          necessary to ensure that CDF's assessment is completed in a  
          timely manner, and to ensure that it reflects the most  
          defensible science on carbon sequestration and forestry  
          practices.  The bill essentially codifies Task #2 of the  
          Interagency Forestry Working Group (IFWG), established in  
          December 2008 by the Natural Resources Agency, California  
          Environmental Protection Agency, and ARB as the official  
          forestry subgroup of the Climate Action Team to provide guidance  
          on all forest-related climate strategies and policies.  The IRWG  
          proposed Task #2 (in addition to 3 other tasks) on May 6, 2009  
          and set a completion date of November 2009.  However, presumably  
          due to resource constraints, including state employee furloughs,  
          this deadline was not met.  On November 24, the IFWG outlined a  
          work plan for Task #2 though it did not include any timeline for  
          completion.

          At the same time, but in a different venue, CDF appears to have  
          already answered the questions posed by Task #2.  In a November  
          12, 2009 memo, responding to concerns raised by the Department  
          of Fish Game regarding the climate impacts of a non-industrial  
          timber management plan (NTMP), CDF concludes, without any  
          supporting documentation, that "?the provisions of the [Forest  
          Practices Act] and [Forest Practice Rules] while not  
          specifically targeted to address GHG relationships will support  
          the targets for the Forest Sector" identified in the Scoping  
          Plan.  While the NTMP itself may, in fact, mitigate or offset  
          carbon emissions associated with timber harvesting, CDF  
          extrapolates this conclusion, without substantiation, across its  
          entire regulatory program.  The Board of Forestry's (BOF) 2008  
          AB 32 Strategic Plan to ARB essentially reaches the same  
          conclusion, again, without any supporting evidence.  This raises  








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          the concern that CDF may not be in the best position to complete  
          the above assessment objectively.

          According to the Scoping Plan, California's forests currently  
          sequester approximately 5 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon  
          dioxide annually.  This means that the atmospheric uptake and  
          sequestration of carbon from forest growth is greater than  
          emissions from fires, harvesting, land conversion, and  
          decomposition.  There were significant limitations (e.g.,  
          temporal, spatial, and methodological), however, to the study  
          that formed the basis for the above sequestration rate so ARB is  
          planning on updating its assessment by winter 2010.   
          Nonetheless, the Scoping Plan tasks CDF and BOF with evaluating  
          how its current regulations and programs will continue to  
          achieve the 5 MMT target by 2020 (Task #2).  Since the  
          conversion of timberland and forestland (a broader category) to  
          non-timber and non-forest land uses is one threat to the  
          maintenance of this target, the Scoping Plan also suggests that  
          regulatory changes could dissuade conversion or require  
          mitigation for the lost sequestration capacity.  From 1999 to  
          2008, about 1,500 acres of timberland per year have been  
          converted to non-timber uses.

          CDF is just beginning to determine how it will implement Task  
          #2.  Possible options include a top-down approach, comparing  
          carbon inventory trends longitudinally and retrospectively  
          teasing out possible explanations for this trend, or a  
          risk-based approach, assessing the capacity of its rules or  
          programs to mitigate threats (e.g., wildfires, conversions) to  
          carbon stocks.  There are many existing forest practice rules  
          that, on a project-by-project basis, may have the effect of  
          offsetting overall carbon emissions (e.g., streamside buffer or  
          retention rules) or contributing to emissions (e.g., rules that  
          permit the harvesting of old-growth or older trees).  However,  
          these rules were not developed with carbon sequestration in mind  
          so the challenge is to determine which rules have the incidental  
          benefit of increased carbon storage and whether new rules or  
          amendments are necessary to increase storage or mitigate  
          emissions in order to meet or maintain the Scoping Plan target.  

           Pursuant to its responsibilities under the California  
          Environmental Quality Act, CDF is requiring large landowners  
          (greater than 50,000 acres) to analyze the GHG impacts of their  
          preferred timber harvest management regimes across their entire  
          ownership.  These landowners are currently required to  








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          demonstrate, through a sustained yield plan (SYP), "maximum  
          sustained production" of high-quality timber products, balancing  
          growth and harvest over a 100-year planning horizon.  An SYP  
          describes a landowner's management regime, and proposed growth  
          and harvest rates, and contains environmental analysis of this  
          regime on a programmatic scale.

           
          Analysis Prepared by  :  Jessica Wesbrook / NAT. RES. / (916)  
          319-2092


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