BILL NUMBER: AB 2575 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Chesbro
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to add Article 5.5 (commencing with Section 4564) to
Chapter 8 of Part 2 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to resources.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2575, as introduced, Chesbro. Resources: watersheds.
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, among other
things, prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a
timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional
forester has been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection, and unless the plan has been approved. Existing law
requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt certain
forest practice rules and regulations to minimize the effects of
erosion on water resources and lakes.
This bill would require the department when implementing a pilot
project to protect and repair the riparian zone in watersheds with
listed anadromous salmonids to, among other things, ensure that the
industry, agencies, and public have balanced involvement in the pilot
projects and that the pilot project have certain goals.
The bill would require the department, by July 1, 2011, to place
all electronically available logging plan information on a planning
watershed basis on the department's Internet Web site in an organized
and easily accessible manner.
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. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) There are crucial problems within the watersheds of California
that have resulted, to a large extent, in the listing of fish and
other wildlife species under the California Endangered Species Act or
federal Endangered Species Act.
(b) There are numerous water bodies in California that have been
declared by the California Environmental Protection Agency and the
State Water Resources Control Board to be impaired due to excessive
sedimentation, high water temperatures, and pollutants.
(c) California timberlands have been significantly depleted of
their timberland value, and economic stresses have devalued the
existing timber resources and created an extreme "boom and bust"
cycle for the industry and its workers, as well as drastic
liquidation of much essential infrastructure.
(d) The overstocked young growth of much of California's
timberlands has led to greatly increased risk of catastrophic
wildfire over large areas and in proximity to and surrounding many
places inhabited by human communities.
(e) Sequestration of carbon in forest lands is a vital component
in slowing climate change, and adequate understanding and actions to
respond to this need have not been determined nor implemented.
(f) These problems have not only significantly and adversely
impacted the natural resources and watersheds of California, but have
similarly impacted the lives, health, safety, private property, and
general welfare of Californians.
(g) The regions of California that have state or federal listed
anadromous salmonid species are often predominately forest lands that
are subject to the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973,
pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 4511) of Part 3 of
Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, for purposes of review and
approval of logging plans. These plans include, but are not limited
to, timber harvest plans (THPs), nonindustrial timber management
plans (NTMPs), Sustained Yield Plans (SYPs), and Program Timberland
Environmental Impact Reports (PTEIR).
(h) There has been, and continues to be, a separation and
isolation of the processes of extraction of forest land resources
from the processes of watershed restoration and other recovery needs.
Logging plans are approved and carried out in a system that is
disconnected from efforts of the public and the state to restore and
enhance fisheries' habitat, as well as cope with the other problems
described above. This causes inefficient allocations of funding,
material, and personnel with no comprehensive approach to the
recognition and correction of problems which, in turn, leads to the
continued deterioration of habitat, watershed and forest health,
timber quality, and fire safety.
(i) Significant, but often limited, gains have been made in forest
land resource protection and conservation since the Z'berg-Nejedly
Forest Practice Act of 1973, including the application of the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and various state and
federal water quality and fish and game statutes and regulations.
These statutes and regulations have led to some improvements,
including, among other things, the fact that logs are no longer
yarded down streambeds, landings are not placed in streams, riparian
buffers have evolved, and lower impact road building techniques are
required.
(j) Improvements are still to be made, however, and the weakest
aspect of California's forest practices is the failure to manage a
process that will adequately evaluate and respond to cumulative
effects. It is this process that can actually address the issues
raised in these legislative findings. A good cumulative effects
process can provide the information necessary to restore and recover
fish and wildlife populations, to improve the quality and quantity of
timber, to take actions to reduce fire hazards, to sequester carbon,
to produce energy, and to create jobs in taking on these vitally
important tasks.
SEC. 2. Article 5.5 (commencing with Section 4564) is added to
Chapter 8 of Part 2 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, to
read:
Article 5.5. Comprehensive Forest Land Recovery and
Restoration Act
4564. The department shall, when implementing a pilot project
pursuant to a regulation adopted in accordance with subdivision (f)
of Section 4562.7, to protect and repair the riparian zone in
watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids, comply with all of the
following:
(a) The department shall provide the industry, agencies, and
public with balanced equity and involvement in the pilot project,
which shall be represented by appropriately qualified representatives
respected by all parties.
(b) The pilot project shall result in the adoption of guidelines
for conducting a cumulative effects evaluation and response on a
planning watershed scale, supported by the industry, agencies, and
public, and shall address the cumulative and planning watershed
impacts, including project-specific issues or site-specific issues,
or both.
(c) The department shall consult with credible experts in order to
achieve a sound process that is feasible, enforceable, and of a
standard that is protective of the public trust. Topics included in
the findings of the pilot project shall include qualitative and
quantitative methods, repeatability, documentation, expertise, scale,
and adequacy of analysis.
(d) The pilot project shall have the following goals:
(1) Restore fisheries and wildlife habitat.
(2) Reduce the risk of wildfire.
(3) Recover forest characteristics which will produce high-quality
timber.
(4) Reduce sedimentation and soil loss.
(5) Achieve optimum carbon sequestration.
(6) Restore and recover unique attributes of a given planning
watershed.
(e) The pilot project shall address specific requirements of state
and federal mandates, including, but not limited to, coho recovery
and restoring impaired water bodies.
(f) Funding and personnel for the pilot projects shall be utilized
from existing department and responsible agencies' budgets and
personnel. Additional funding shall be sought from private and public
sources, statewide and nationally, with an emphasis on receiving
support from educational institutions.
4565. On or before July 1, 2011, the department shall place all
electronically available logging plan information on a planning
watershed basis on the department's Internet Web site in a manner
that is organized by a particular planning watershed and easily
accessible to the public.