BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2029
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Date of Hearing: April 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Das Williams, Chair
AB 2029
(Dahle) - As Amended March 18, 2016
SUBJECT: Timber harvesting plans: exemptions
SUMMARY: Extends the Forest Fire Prevention Pilot Project
(Pilot) from January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2023, and expands it
by allowing road construction and larger trees to be harvested
in forest land without a timber harvest permit (THP).
EXISTING LAW, pursuant to the Z'Berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act
(FPA):
1)Prohibits timber operations unless a THP has been prepared by
a registered professional forester (Forester) and approved by
the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).
2)Considers a THP the functional equivalent of an environmental
impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA).
3)Requires a THP to contain a description of the location of the
planned harvest, the harvest method, measures to avoid
excessive erosion, timeframe of operations, and other
information required by forest practice rules (FPR) adopted by
the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board).
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4)Authorizes the Board to develop alternative stocking standards
for the average point count method and the average residual
basal area of stocking if those standards address the
variables in forest characteristics and achieve suitable
resource conservation.
5)Requires any person who owns timberlands that are to be
devoted to uses other than the growing of timber to file a
timberland conversion permit with the Board. Prohibits the
Board from approving a timberland conversion permit unless the
Board makes written findings.
6)Exempts various tree removal activities from THPs, including
Christmas tree farms, rights-of-way for utility lines,
conversions of less than three acres, fire prevention,
defensible space, and dead, dying and diseased trees.
Requires ministerial permits for certain exemptions, called a
notice of exemption (NOE), and subjects projects to inspection
by CAL FIRE.
7)Creates an exemption from THP known as the Pilot Exemption.
Limits harvesting under the exemption to the following:
a) Only trees less than 24 inches in stump diameter;
b) Tree harvesting must decrease fuel continuity and
increase quadratic mean diameter of the stand;
c) No new road construction or reconstruction;
d) No known sites of rare, threatened, or endangered plants
or animals will be disturbed, threatened, or damaged; and,
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e) The activates are limited to the Sierra Nevada Region or
the Counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Modoc,
Sonoma, Siskiyou, or Trinity.
8)Requires CAL FIRE to maintain records regarding the use of
exemptions granted in order to evaluate the impact of the
exemptions on fuel reduction and natural resources in areas
where an exemption has been used.
9)Requires CAL FIRE to conduct an onsite inspection to determine
compliance with the Pilot.
10)Sunsets the Pilot three years after the effective date of
regulations adopted by the Board (January 1, 2018).
THIS BILL:
1)Makes various findings about tree mortality and the benefits
of thinning forests.
2)Extends the Pilot until January 1, 2023, and makes the
following changes:
a) Allows the construction or reconstruction of temporary
roads of 600 feet or less;
b) Increases size of trees allowed to be harvested to less
than 28 inches; and,
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c) Expands areas where harvest activities may be conducted
to the Counties of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Del
Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Lassen,
Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer,
Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity,
Tulare, Tuolumne, or Yuba.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Background. California has regulated forest practices on
private lands since at least 1945. The Legislature assessed
the effectiveness of this approach and concluded that the
industry could not be relied on to ensure proper water
quality, forest health, and adequate timber supply. In 1957,
the state Senate Interim Committee on Soil and Beach Erosion
found that timber harvesting and logging road construction
contributed to stream erosion and resultant impacts to fish
populations. In 1962, the Assembly Interim Committee on
Natural Resources, Planning, and Public Works concluded that
timber regulations were inadequately enforced, leading to
deleterious effects on water quality, fishing, and recreation.
In 1967, after three years of study, the Assembly
Subcommittee on Forest Practices and Watershed Management
recommended that the basic state policy governing forest
practices should be broadened and strengthened. These
collective findings, coupled with a 1971 report that
identified logging as a primary factor in an 80% decline of
salmon and steelhead populations, motivated the Legislature to
pass the FPA in 1973. The FPA requires THPs, which are a
complex discretionary permit that acts as an EIR under CEQA.
AB 1492 (Committee on Budget), Chapter 289, Statutes of 2012,
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extended the life of THPs from three years to five years with
an option for a two-year extension. AB 1492 also shifted
state fees for a THP to an assessment on all lumber products
to fund agency review. However, a THP can still cost
landowners tens of thousands of dollars to prepare.
2)Author's statement:
The Forest Fire Prevention Pilot Program regulations
took effect January 2015. Since then 2087 acres have
been treated. During this time a few issues have come
up in regards to access, counties eligible, diameter
and the sunset. We propose allowing a temporary
access road up to 600 feet in order to allow access to
hard to reach stands in order to be able to treat more
acres. We realized in doing AB 744 we neglected to
capture complete counties so we want to correct this
by including the whole county of the existing list, no
new counties are being added. Another issue has come
up in regards to older stands. These stands have
larger trees and are much more dense. In order to be
able to utilize the exemption and treat more land we
would like to see a diameter increase to 28 inches.
This will allow older stands to be treated while still
keeping the overall stand diameter increasing. In
light of these adjustments we want to make, we would
like to extend the sunset out another 5 years to 2022
in order to get a more concise accounting of how it's
working.
3)Pilot. Since 2015, there have been 16 Pilot projects
treating the forest to prevent fire with one violation
for harvesting trees over 24 inches. CAL FIRE has not
yet evaluated whether the Pilot has been effective at
preventing fires. CAL FIRE has also not been able to
demonstrate that overall diameter is increasing on areas
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using the exemption. As an exemption, CAL FIRE has no
ability to work with applicants to ensure projects are
strategically located to be most effective in fire
prevention. The exemption has also been used mostly by
large timber operators who are in a better positon to
afford conducting a THP than small land owners.
Therefore, it is unclear what the value of the Pilot has
been. However, the Pilot has only been in effect for a
year and half. One reason it might not be used more
frequently is because of the tree mortality crisis.
Forest land owners may be using the dead, dying, and
diseased trees exemption instead because so many trees
qualify for it.
4)This bill. This bill is intended to make the Pilot more
attractive to forest land owners by increasing the size
of trees they can harvest and allowing them to build
roads into forest land without a THP. NOE's are
ministerial permits, and therefore if the NOE meets the
requirements of forest practice rules, CAL FIRE must
approve it. This leaves CAL FIRE in the position of only
really understanding what happened in the harvest when
inspecting it after it has already been conducted.
Larger trees hold more commercial value and increase the
chances of projects being driven for commercial purposes
rather than forest health. Conducting thinning operations
in larger, older forests increases the chances of harm to
sensitive wildlife. The author and committee may wish to
consider amending the bill to reduce the increase in
diameter of trees that can be harvested. Allowing roads
in forested areas without a THP creates sediment issues
in coastal streams, which will have impacts on salmon and
other fish species. The author and committee may wish to
consider amending the bill to limit road construction on
sloped areas that are a high risk for erosion. This
committee has heard numerous exemptions to THPs in the
past several years. The effectiveness of these
exemptions has not been evaluated, and it is unclear why
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CAL FIRE's Modified THP for Fuel Hazard Reduction cannot
be used to deal with fire prevention projects. The
modified THP is less onerous than a normal THP and allows
CAL FIRE to review projects. As the bill moves forward
the author may wish to consider asking CAL FIRE to
evaluate the Pilot and the modified THP, and make
recommendations on how to improve both.
5)Prior/Related legislation.
AB 1958 (Wood) exempts the removal of trees from THP
requirements if the purpose of the harvest is to restore and
conserve California black or Oregon white oak woodlands and
associated grasslands. This bill clarifies that restoration and
conservation forest management activities do not require a
timber conversion permit. This bill is awaiting hearing in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 744 (Dahle), Chapter 647, Statutes of 2013, creates the
Pilot, which is a 3-year pilot project focused on the Sierra
Nevada Region that allows the removal of trees less than 24
inches in stump diameter, with specific limitations designed to
reduce fire risk and protect natural and archeological
resources.
AB 2142 (Chesbro), Chapter 307, Statutes of 2014, adds Del
Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Sonoma Counties to the Pilot
created by AB 744.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
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Support
American Insurance Association
Calforests
California Cattlemen's Association
California Chamber of Commerce
California Farm Bureau Federation
California Ski Industry Association
California Licensed Foresters Association
California State Association of Counties
Central Coast Forest Association
Forest Landowners of California
Forest Products industry National Labor Management Committee
Green Diamond Resource Company
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Humboldt Redwood Company
Mendocino Redwood Company
Michigan-California Timber Company
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Personal Insurance Federation of California
Property Casualty Insurers Association of America
Rural County Representatives of California
Sierra Pacific Industries
SMUD
Soper-Wheeler Company
Opposition
Center for Biological Diversity
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Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch
Environmental Protection Information Center
Sierra Club
Analysis Prepared by:Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092