BILL NUMBER: AB 2575 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 28, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2010
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 amended, 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 and the board when
implementing a pilot project to protect and restore the riparian zone
in watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids to, among other
things, ensure that the industry, agencies, and the public have equal
opportunity to participate in the development of the pilot project
in a transparent manner and that the pilot project have certain
goals.
The bill would require the department, by July 1, 2011, to place
existing electronically available timber harvesting plan information
in its possession on January 1, 2011, on its 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 State Water Resources Control Board to be impaired
due to excessive sedimentation, high water temperatures, and
pollutants.
(c) 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.
(d) 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).
(e) There have been, and continue to be, concerns about the
impacts of forest management on the health of watersheds and the
species that depend on them. Forest practice rules addressing the
potential impacts to anadromous salmonids, for example, have only
recently been adopted in a comprehensive fashion despite over a
decade of litigation and deliberation by the state. In the meantime,
most native salmon and steelhead species are listed as threatened or
endangered and, as of 2006, there are 410 rivers or streams on the
north coast of the state that are listed as sediment-impaired under
the federal Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. Sec. 1251 et seq.). Moreover,
it has been well documented that the existing rules addressing
cumulative effects analyses are woefully inadequate and appear to
exist in isolation of the processes of forest management, watershed
restoration, and other recovery activities.
(f) Significant, but at times 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, certain large trees along
watercourses are retained, and lower impact road building techniques
are required.
(g) There are still opportunities for improvement by the
development of a comprehensive cumulative effects review process that
is conducted in cooperation with landowners and other stakeholders.
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.
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. When implementing a pilot project pursuant to a regulation
adopted in accordance with Section 4551.5 or 4562.7, to protect and
restore the riparian zone in watersheds with listed anadromous
salmonids, the department and board shall comply with all of the
following:
(a) Provide the industry, agencies, and the public with equal
opportunity to participate in the development of a pilot project in a
transparent manner.
(b) A pilot project shall result in the adoption of guidelines for
conducting a cumulative effects evaluation on a planning watershed
scale, and shall address the potential project-specific planning
watershed cumulative effects of timber harvesting activities. In
particular, the guidelines shall require the following:
(1) The spatial scale of the cumulative effects analysis to be
consistent with the resources of concern, including watersheds and
soil productivity, and with the physical processes, including
erosion, that influence those resources.
(2) The use of reproducible, quantitative methods of evaluation as
the primary means of determining baseline physical, chemical, or
biological parameters, in estimating cumulative impacts, and in
monitoring implementation of mitigation measures.
(3) Sufficient documentation that supports the conclusions and
recommendations of an evaluation.
(4) The evaluator to have relevant training and experience.
(c) Consult with and seek comment from appropriate scientific
experts in order to develop evaluation guidelines that are feasible,
enforceable, and protective of the public trust. The department and
the board may draw from information in the State of Washington's
Watershed Analysis Manual or the Methods Manual developed by the
State of California's North Coast Watershed Assessment Program when
developing guidelines.
(d) A pilot project shall have one or more of 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 long-term carbon sequestration.
(6) Restore and recover unique attributes of a given planning
watershed.
(e) A pilot project shall be consistent with state and federal
mandates governing coho recovery and restoration of impaired water
bodies.
(f) Funding and personnel for the development and implementation
of 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
existing electronically available timber harvesting plan information
in its possession on January 1, 2011, on its Internet Web site in a
manner that is organized by planning watershed and easily accessible
to the public.