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 2142                   HEARING DATE: June 24, 2014  
          AUTHOR: Chesbro                    URGENCY: No  
          VERSION: June 17, 2014             CONSULTANT: Bill Craven  
          DUAL REFERRAL: No                  FISCAL: No  
          SUBJECT: State forests: sale of timber.  
          
          BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
          1.  Existing law assigns forestry regulation and timber harvest  
          regulation to the California Department of Forestry and Fire  
          Protection (CDF). Generally, landowners and commercial timber  
          companies are prohibited from conducting timber operations  
          unless a timber harvest plan (THP) or another similar permit has  
          been prepared by a registered professional forester and approved  
          by the CDF. The Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency has  
          certified that a THP is the functional equivalent of an  
          environmental impact report (EIR) under the California  
          Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). 

          2.  However, there are also exemptions from the permitting  
          process and one of those exemptions is the Forest Fire  
          Prevention Exemption often referred to as the "La Malfa  
          Exemption" for timber removal that assists in reducing fire risk  
          and that meets various conditions: 
          a) The harvesting must occur on parcels of 300 acres or less; 
          b) The harvesting must decrease fuel continuity (both vertically  
          and horizontally); 
          c) The harvesting must result in making the average diameter of  
          the trees that remain in the stand larger than the average  
          diameter of the trees in the stand prior to the fuel reduction  
          activities; 
          d) A registered professional forester must prepare the notice of  
          exemption; 
          e) The level of residual stocking must be consistent with  
          maximum sustained production of high-quality timber products; 
          f) The activities must comply with the regulations that protect  
          archaeological sites; and 
          g) Only trees less than 18 inches in stump diameter, measured at  
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          8 inches above ground level, may be removed. However, within 500  
          feet of a legally permitted structure, or in an area prioritized  
          as a shaded fuel break in a community wildfire protection plan  
          approved by a public fire agency, if the goal of fuel reduction  
          cannot be achieved by removing trees less than 18 inches in  
          stump diameter, trees less than 24 inches in stump diameter may  
          be removed if that removal is necessary to achieve the goal of  
          fuel reduction. 

          3.  Last year, AB 744 (Dahle) established a three-year pilot  
          project in several counties in the Sierra Nevada on lands that  
          are co-terminous with the boundaries of the Sierra Nevada  
          Conservancy (with the additions of Modoc, Trinity, and Siskyou  
          Counties) to evaluate if an increase in the diameter of trees  
          that could be removed under the La Malfa exemption as well as  
          new, additional conditions, would improve the economic utility  
          of this exemption in reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire.  

               
          All activities pursuant to this exemption shall occur within the  
          most recent version of the CDF fire hazard severity zone map in  
          the moderate, high, and very high fire threat zones. 
          That bill expanded the diameter of trees that could be removed  
          from 18 to 24 inches, prohibits the use of clear-cutting,  
          requires that acreage reflect a net increase in the diameter of  
          the remaining trees, and other specified conditions. 

          COMMENTS 
          According to data from CDF that was submitted last year the  
          total acreage treated pursuant to the existing La Malfa  
          exemption since 2005 is 8400 acres. That is not much acreage,  
          although as an exemption, it is also not intended to be used  
          expansively. That said  another consideration is whether one of  
          the reasons the exemption has not been used is that previous  
          restriction on tree size may have made the use of that   
          exemption un-economic. Some environmental organizations will be  
          leery of harvesting activities that increase the tree diameter  
          size pursuant to this exemption without the normal environmental  
          review since activities pursuant to this exemption are approved  
          with a ministerial permit. 

          PROPOSED LAW
          This bill would add Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, and  
          Trinity Counties to the AB 744 pilot program. All of the AB 744  
          conditions would apply to this bill.

          ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
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          According to the author, the fire risk in these northern  
          counties is also increasing, and he would like the department to  
          be able to observe if the pilot project would be useful in those  
          counties and to landowners to reduce fire risk. 

          ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
          None received

          SUPPORT
          California Farm Bureau Federation

          OPPOSITION
          None Received


































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