BILL NUMBER: AB 2402 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 271
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 22, 2014
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR AUGUST 22, 2014
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 7, 2014
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY MAY 28, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 23, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Buchanan
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Frazier)
FEBRUARY 21, 2014
An act to amend Sections 7270, 7271, 7272.5, and 7273 of the Food
and Agricultural Code, relating to noxious weed management.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2402, Buchanan. Noxious weed management.
Under existing law, the Department of Food and Agriculture is
designated as the lead department in noxious weed management, and
requires the department, in cooperation with the Secretary of the
Natural Resources Agency, to implement provisions relating to noxious
weed management. Existing law creates the Noxious Weed Management
Account in the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund, and provides
for the allocation of those funds, by percentage, for specified
purposes, including control and abatement, research, and to the
department for purposes of carrying out those provisions relating to
noxious weed management.
This bill would revise the percentages of those allocations, and
would also revise the purposes for which the percentage of funds
allocated for research may be used to include mapping, risk
assessment, and prioritization of weeds. The bill would specify that
the funds made available for the control and abatement of noxious and
invasive weeds shall be made available through a grant program
administered by the department, as specified.
Existing law, to be eligible for funds from the Noxious Weed
Management Account, requires a county agricultural commissioner to
submit a cost-sharing integrated weed management plan to implement a
control program for noxious weeds, and identifies specified goals
that are required to be included in that program, including, among
others, protecting the biodiversity of native ecosystems.
This bill would also include increasing water supply and flow
among the goals that are required to be included in the program. The
bill would revise the legislative findings and declarations relating
to noxious weed management, and would make other clarifying and
nonsubstantive changes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 7270 of the Food and Agricultural Code is
amended to read:
7270. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The destructive impact of invasive and noxious weeds is
profound, affecting California's cropland, rangeland, forests, parks,
waterways, and wildlands.
(b) These pests cause enormous losses of private, state, and
federal resources through decreased land productivity, decreased
water supply, degradation of wildlife habitat, and outright
destruction of crops, livestock range, wetlands, waterways,
watersheds, and recreational areas.
(c) The estimated annual lost crop and pasture productivity caused
by noxious weeds is twenty-five billion dollars ($25,000,000,000)
nationwide, a large proportion of which is attributable to
California. Nationally, the direct and indirect costs of controlling
noxious weeds is estimated to be at least nine billion six hundred
million dollars ($9,600,000,000) annually.
(d) Local programs conducted under this article since 2000 have
successfully eradicated over 2,000 populations of high priority weed
infestations, while engaging hundreds of collaborating organizations
and leveraging three dollars ($3) of additional support for every
state dollar spent.
SEC. 2. Section 7271 of the Food and Agricultural Code is amended
to read:
7271. (a) The Legislature designates the Department of Food and
Agriculture as the lead department in noxious weed management and the
department is responsible for the implementation of this article in
cooperation with the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency.
(b) There is hereby created in the Department of Food and
Agriculture Fund the Noxious Weed Management Account.
(c) Funds appropriated for expenditure by the secretary for
purposes of this article may be spent without regard to fiscal year
and shall be allocated as follows:
(1) Sixty percent of moneys in the account shall be made available
to eligible weed management areas or county agricultural
commissioners for the control and abatement of noxious and invasive
weeds according to an approved integrated weed management plan. These
control moneys shall be made available through a grant program
administered by the department. Proposals shall be evaluated based on
strategic importance for local and regional eradication of high
priority noxious and invasive weeds.
(2) Twenty percent shall be made available toward research on the
biology, ecology, or management of noxious and invasive weeds, and
mapping, risk assessment, and prioritization of weeds. These research
moneys shall be made available to qualified researchers through a
grant program administered by the department. Proposals shall be
evaluated in consultation with the Range Management Advisory
Committee, with emphasis placed on funding of needs-based, applied
and practical research.
(3) Twenty percent shall be made available to the department, and
shall only be used for the following purposes:
(A) Carrying out the provisions of this article.
(B) Developing noxious weed control strategies.
(C) Seeking new, effective biological control agents for the
long-term control of noxious weeds.
(D) Conducting private and public workshops as needed to discuss
and plan weed management strategies with all interested and affected
local, state, and federal agencies, private landowners, educational
institutions, interest groups, and county agricultural commissioners.
(E) Appointing a noxious weed coordinator and weed mapping
specialist to assist in weed inventory, mapping, and control
strategies.
SEC. 3. Section 7272.5 of the Food and Agricultural Code is
amended to read:
7272.5. (a) To be eligible to receive funding from the Noxious
Weed Management Account pursuant to this article, a county
agricultural commissioner shall submit a cost-share integrated weed
management plan to implement an aggressive control program for
noxious weeds. The goals of the program shall include, but not be
limited to, all of the following:
(1) Increase the profitability and value of cropland and
rangeland.
(2) Decrease the costs of roadside, park, and waterway
maintenance.
(3) Reduce the fire hazard and fire control costs in the state.
(4) Protect the biodiversity of native ecosystems.
(5) Maintain the recreational and aesthetic value of open space,
recreational, and public areas.
(6) Increase water supply and flow.
(b) Funds dispersed pursuant to this section shall be allocated on
the basis of the total number of infested acres in each county and
the degree of infestation that exists in the counties, and shall be
only used for the following purposes upon submission of a plan
approved by county boards of supervisors and the department:
(1) Operation of programs by the county agricultural commissioner
for control of noxious weeds along county roads and other local
government owned property.
(2) Matching funds for control of noxious weeds on city owned
streets, parks, rights-of-way, and other public areas.
(3) Disseminating biological control agents by the county
agricultural commissioner for the long-term control of yellow
starthistle or other noxious weeds.
(4) Abatement of noxious weed infestations on land vital to the
success of the program.
(5) Not more than 10 percent of the noxious weed management funds
distributed to a county agricultural commissioner subject to this
section may be used by that commissioner for meeting, travel,
administration, and coordination costs.
SEC. 4. Section 7273 of the Food and Agricultural Code is amended
to read:
7273. (a) The department shall designate and provide staff
support to an oversight committee to monitor this article and shall
consider input from weed management areas, county agricultural
commissioners, and the Range Management Advisory Committee.
(b) The membership of the oversight committee shall include an
equitable number of representatives from each of the following
interests:
(1) Livestock production.
(2) Agricultural crop protection.
(3) Forest products industry.
(4) California Invasive Plant Council.
(5) Research institutions.
(6) Wildlife conservation groups.
(7) Environmental groups.
(8) Resource conservation districts.
(9) The general public.
(10) Local government.
(11) The Department of Fish and Wildlife.