BILL NUMBER: AB 896 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Eggman
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act to add Section 1506 to the Fish and Game Code, relating to
wildlife management.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 896, as introduced, Eggman. Wildlife management areas: mosquito
abatement.
(1) Existing law provides for the formation of mosquito abatement
and vector control districts, and prescribes the powers, functions,
and duties of those districts, as specified. The existing Fish and
Game Code authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife to take
specified actions to protect, restore, rehabilitate, and improve fish
and wildlife habitat.
Statutory provisions that were repealed on January 1, 2010,
required a mosquito abatement and vector control district whose
boundaries include one or more wildlife management areas to
periodically, or at least semiannually, notify the department of
those areas that exceed locally established mosquito population
thresholds and associated mosquito control costs. These provisions
required the department to take specified actions with regard to the
control and abatement of mosquitos in those wildlife management
areas. These provisions required those mosquito abatement and vector
control districts, in consultation with the department, to develop
standardized monitoring procedures for mosquito surveillance, as
prescribed, for each managed wetland habitat at each wildlife
management area, and to provide an annual report to the department of
pesticide use in those habitats and areas, as specified.
This bill would permanently reenact those provisions. This bill
would also make nonsubstantive conforming changes. By imposing new
duties on local agencies with regard to mosquito control and
abatement practices in wildlife habitat areas, the bill would impose
a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 1506 is added to the Fish and Game Code, to
read:
1506. (a) (1) It is the intent of the Legislature to control
mosquito production on managed wetland habitat that is owned or
managed by the department, in a manner that does all of the
following:
(A) Maintains or enhances the waterfowl and other wildlife values
of that habitat.
(B) Minimizes financial costs to the department and local mosquito
abatement and vector control districts.
(C) Reduces the need for chemical treatment or other nonecological
control of mosquitos.
(D) Increases coordination and communication between the
department, local mosquito abatement and vector control districts,
and the State Department of Public Health.
(E) Maintains and protects humans, domestic animals, and wildlife
from vector-borne diseases such as West Nile virus.
(2) The Legislature further finds and declares that the
implementation of mosquito prevention best management practices on
managed wetland habitat is critical to the department's effort to
reduce mosquito production on its wildlife management areas.
(b) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Managed wetland habitat" means artificially irrigated and
intensively managed wetland habitat administered primarily for the
benefit of waterfowl and other wetland-dependent species.
(2) "Best management practices" means management strategies
jointly developed by the department, the State Department of Public
Health, and mosquito abatement and vector control districts, in
consultation with the Central Valley Habitat Joint Venture, for the
ecological control of mosquitoes on managed wetland habitat.
(3) "Wildlife management area" has the same meaning as set forth
in subdivision (d) of Section 1504.
(4) "Mosquito abatement and vector control district" has the same
meaning as set forth in subdivision (f) of Section 2002 of the Health
and Safety Code.
(c) (1) A mosquito abatement and vector control district whose
district boundaries include one or more wildlife management areas
shall periodically, or at least semiannually, notify the department
of those areas that exceed locally established mosquito population
thresholds and associated mosquito control costs. The district shall
provide the basis for the established thresholds to the department.
Those thresholds and costs may be reviewed by the State Department of
Public Health for conformity to generally acceptable mosquito
control standards.
(2) In order to reduce mosquito production at those wildlife
management areas described in paragraph (1), the department shall do
all of the following:
(A) Identify best management practices for each applicable
wildlife management area that, when implemented, would result in the
mosquito population being reduced below the locally established
threshold value while maintaining and enhancing the waterfowl and
other wildlife values of that habitat.
(B) In consultation with the local mosquito abatement and vector
control district, develop and implement a mosquito control plan that
applies the best management practices and any other necessary
management practices at each applicable wildlife management area.
(C) If capital improvements or other infrastructure are required
to implement selected best management practices at a wildlife
management area, the department shall work to secure any necessary
funding through the board or other appropriate sources.
(D) In coordination with the local mosquito abatement and vector
control district, develop each spring an annual work plan for each
wildlife management area that specifies the intended management
activities for each unit of the wildlife management area and that, to
the extent practicable, employs best management practices.
(E) Implement the best management practices referenced in the
annual work plan to the greatest extent possible, recognizing that
unanticipated modifications to those plans are often necessary due to
the uncertainty of water availability, water conveyance problems
associated with beaver, muskrat and other animal activity, ditch,
levee or pump failures, equipment breakdowns, rainfall or
runoff-induced natural flooding, and other factors beyond the control
of the department's wetland managers, all of which may require
periodic alteration of wetland management plans.
(F) Meet with the local mosquito abatement and vector control
district each summer to coordinate fall flooding of managed wetland
habitat at each applicable wildlife management area and, if chemical
treatment or other nonecological control is necessary, conduct
post-fall flooding meetings to discuss the refinement of best
management practices.
(G) If the wetland occupies land outside the jurisdictional
boundaries of a mosquito abatement and vector control district, the
department may consult with the State Department of Public Health to
determine which best management practices can be implemented in the
absence of an organized local mosquito control program.
(d) A mosquito abatement and vector control district whose
boundaries include a wildlife management area described in paragraph
(1) of subdivision (c) shall do all of the following:
(1) In consultation with the department, develop standardized
monitoring procedures for mosquito surveillance for each managed
wetland habitat at each wildlife management area, and, when the
monitoring procedures are completed, provide a copy of the procedures
to the department. These procedures may be reviewed by the State
Department of Public Health for conformity to generally accepted
mosquito control standards.
(2) Conduct posttreatment monitoring of wildlife management area
lands and develop performance criteria to document mosquito control
effectiveness.
(3) Provide an annual report to the department specifying the
types and quantities of pesticides used, types of habitat sprayed,
and the total number of acres treated in a wildlife management area.
The annual report shall also include recommendations for the
refinement of best management practices to reduce the need for any
chemical treatment or other nonecological control.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a
local agency or school district has the authority to levy service
charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or
level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section
17556 of the Government Code.