BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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| SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER |
| Senator Fran Pavley, Chair |
| 2013-2014 Regular Session |
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BILL NO: AB 2082 HEARING DATE: June 10, 2014
AUTHOR: Dahle URGENCY: No
VERSION: February 20, 2014 CONSULTANT: Bill Craven
DUAL REFERRAL: No FISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Forest practices: resource conservation standards:
stocking standards.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
1. The Z'Berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 (FPA) requires
the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board) to adopt rules
and regulations to assure the continuous growing and harvesting
of commercial forest tree species and to protect the soil, air,
fish and wildlife, and specified water resources.
2. The FPA also requires the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection (CDF) to oversee the FPA in consultation with other
public agencies and the interested public. The FPA and FPR
specifically regulate, among other things, timber harvest plans
(THPs), Nonindustrial Timber Management Plans (NTMPs), Program
Timber Harvesting Plans (PTHPs), and other types of plans
related to timber operations on private lands in California. All
commercial harvesting activities are required to obtain one of
these permits, most of which are tailored to the size of the
land ownership or the type of harvesting that occurs.
3. For lands within a THP, existing law requires minimum
stocking standards after completion of timber operations which
can be accomplished in either of the following ways:
a) An average point count of 300 per acre, except for site IV
classification or lower (i.e., sites with lower productivity
potential), which shall have an average point count of 150 per
acre. (The point count of a tree is determined by tree size. For
example, a tree that is less than four inches in diameter at
breast height counts as one point. A tree over 12 inches in
diameter counts as six points.); or
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b) An average residual basal area (i.e., the sum of tree
diameter for an acre) of at least 85 square feet per acre,
except for site II classification (i.e., sites with intermediate
productivity potential) or lower, which shall have the minimum
average residual basal area of 50 square feet per acre.
4. The stocking standards, also called resource conservation
standards, apply statewide except that the board is authorized
to adopt standards for each designated forestry district in the
state which are equal to or stricter than the standards
described above.
PROPOSED LAW
This bill would authorize the board to develop alternative
stocking standards when necessary to address the variables in
forest characteristics. The bill would also delete the ability
of the board to develop district-specific stocking standards.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
According to the author, new stocking standards need to be
created on a species- and site-specific basis to ensure that
California is maintaining and growing forests that can adapt to
our rapidly changing climate and environmental conditions.
The author points out that the Sierra Nevada region historically
had 20-50 trees per acre. Today, the author states that the
average is 266 trees per acre. The result is greater fire risk,
and less space and nutrients per tree. He also points out the
current statute was adopted at a time when the survival rate of
seedlings was 55% while today the survival rate is above 90%.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received.
COMMENTS
1. The bill currently deletes the district-based stocking
option. That is not necessary to achieve the authors' objective.
In conversation with the author, he agreed with an approach that
would retain the language in Section 4561.1 and re-number the
proposed new language as section 4561.2.
2. The bill is silent on any limitations on "alternative
stocking standards." The board would have maximum flexibility to
establish such standards on any basis it so chooses including
based on species-type, watershed, or other criteria.
3. The author expressed an interest in limiting the application
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of the "alternative stocking standards" provision to just
subdivision (a) of Sec. 4561. This approach would apply to the
average point count approach to comply with stocking standards
but not the basal area approach.
SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS
AMENDMENT 1
Retain section 4561.2 and put language proposed in AB 2082
(now in 4561.1) in a new section 4561.2.
AMENDMENT 2
Amend the proposed new 4561.2 as follows: Notwithstanding
the resource conservation standards in 4561(a), the board
may adopt alternative standards that meet the purposes of
that subdivision if those alternative standards reasonably
address the variables in forest characteristics and achieve
suitable stocking standards.
AMENDMENT 3
At the request of Assemblymember Dahle, add Assemblymember
Gordon as a joint author; add Senator Gaines as a Senate
co-author; and add Assemblymembers Bigelow, Olsen and
Wiekowski as Assembly co-authors.
SUPPORT
Pacific Forest Trust
California Cattlemen's Association
California Licensed Professional Foresters Association
OPPOSITION
None Received
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