BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2001
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
2001 (Mathis)
As Amended August 2, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |76-0 |(April 28, |SENATE: |38-0 |(August 16, |
| | |2016) | | |2016) |
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Original Committee Reference: W., P., & W.
SUMMARY: Authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW)
to permit the taking of the Owens pupfish, a fully protected
fish, in the Owens River and Mojave River watersheds if the take
is authorized under a safe harbor agreement.
The Senate amendments:
1)Delete provisions in the Assembly version which would have
amended the statute governing fully protected fish species to
clarify that the DFW may authorize the taking of a fully
protected fish for purpose of efforts to recover the species,
whether or not those efforts are part of a scientific research
project.
2)Add a new section authorizing the DFW to authorize the taking
AB 2001
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of the Owens pupfish in the Owens River and Mojave River
watersheds if the take is authorized under a safe harbor
agreement.
3)Add technical amendments to avoid chaptering out problems with
AB 1845 (Dahle) and AB 2488 (Dababneh) of the current
legislative session.
4)Make other technical corrections.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Prohibits the taking or possession of a fully protected fish
except as specified. The species that are classified as fully
protected fish include but are not limited to the Owens River
pupfish.
2)Permits the DFW to authorize the taking of a fully protected
fish for scientific research, including efforts to recover
fully protected, threatened, or endangered species. Requires
the DFW before authorizing the take of a fully protected fish
to make an effort to notify all affected and interested
parties, to publish the notice in the California Regulatory
Notice Register, and to provide 30 days after publication for
submittal of comments.
3)Authorizes the DFW to authorize the taking of a fully
protected fish species whose conservation and management is
provided for in a natural community conservation plan (NCCP)
approved by the DFW.
4)Authorizes the DFW to authorize incidental take of the fully
protected unarmored threespine stickleback fish, and the fully
protected limestone salamander, under certain limited
circumstances, provided specified criteria and standards are
AB 2001
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met for minimization, mitigation and conservation.
5)Provides for the listing of species as threatened or
endangered under federal and state endangered species acts.
The DFW may issue permits for incidental take of listed
species, if specified conditions are met, including
mitigation, minimization, and adaptive management
requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible if any state
costs.
COMMENTS: This bill as amended in the Senate accomplishes the
author's stated purpose of allowing the take of Owens pupfish
for purposes of assisting in recovery of the species, but
through a narrower means than proposed in the Assembly version.
The Bishop Paiute Tribe has been working for several years to
obtain permits to relocate some of the endangered Owens pupfish
to conservation ponds built on the reservation's Native Fish
Refuge. In 2014 the United States (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife
Service proposed to grant the tribe a permit under a safe harbor
agreement to relocate fish from Fish Slough to the ponds as part
of the tribe's efforts to contribute toward recovery of the
species. A safe harbor agreement is a voluntary agreement
whereby the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in exchange for
actions that contribute to the recovery of a listed species on
non-federal lands, provides assurances that if the parties to
the agreement fulfill the conditions of the agreement,
additional management activities will not be required. At the
end of the agreement period, participants may also return the
property to baseline conditions. The safe harbor agreement,
however, was put on hold due to concerns raised by neighboring
landowners that they might face liability under California's
fully protected species statute.
AB 2001
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California also has a safe harbor statute (Fish and Game Code
Section 2089.2). However, while the DFW under current law may
enter into safe harbor agreements and issue incidental take
permits for species protected under the California Endangered
Species Act (CESA), subject to the mitigation and other
requirements of CESA, the Fully Protected Species statutes do
not allow for issuance of incidental take permits, except for
scientific purposes. The Assembly version of this bill would
have amended the fully protected species statute to allow for
take permits to be issued for take of fully protected fish
species for a project, the purpose of which is to recover the
species. While the author introduced this bill to assist Owens
pupfish recovery efforts of the Bishop Piaute Tribe, the
Assembly version of this bill was not limited to tribal
activities, or to the Owens pupfish. It was, however, limited
to recovery projects and did not include actions taken as part
of mitigation for a project.
This bill as amended by the Senate now provides a more narrow
exception allowing for authorization of take of the Owens
pupfish in the Owens River and Mohave River watersheds if the
take is authorized under a safe harbor agreement.
Analysis Prepared by:
Diane Colborn / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096
FN:
0003754