BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1956
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1956 (Monning)
As Amended April 5, 2010
Majority vote
WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 12-0
APPROPRIATIONS 14-0
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|Ayes:|Huffman, Fuller, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Conway, Ammiano, |
| |Anderson, Arambula, Tom | |Bradford, Charles |
| |Berryhill, Blumenfield, | |Calderon, Coto, |
| |Caballero, De La Torre, | |De Leon, Hall, Miller, |
| |Bill Berryhill, Bonnie | |Nielsen, Skinner, |
| |Lowenthal, Salas, Yamada | |Solorio, Torlakson, |
| | | |Torrico |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Authorizes the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), as
part of a condor preservation program, to provide food for
free-ranging condors under certain conditions. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Authorizes DFG, pursuant to a memorandum of understanding
(MOU) with participants in a condor preservation program, to
allow for feeding of free-ranging California condors.
2)Requires the MOU to be consistent with the following
guidelines:
a) The MOU may authorize the following types of animals to
be used to feed free-ranging condors: livestock animals
euthanized by shooting with nonlead ammunition or which die
from natural causes, wildlife killed by traffic, and
animals that die from natural causes on private property if
transported to the feeding site by the landowner; and,
b) Requires a feeding site for condors to be located a safe
distance from nearby hazards including turbines or overhead
wires, on properties of 100 acres or more with a setback of
one half mile from the property line, on a hill or knoll
that is predominately covered by grass and not under a tree
canopy or within 100 feet of water, and within or adjacent
AB 1956
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to the current condor range or within an area subject to a
condor reintroduction effort.
3)Authorizes DFG to work with the State Veterinarian in
preparing an MOU, and requires any MOU in effect on January 1,
2011, that is inconsistent with the guidelines of this bill to
be revised to conform to those guidelines.
4)Requires DFG in preparing the MOU to work with federal
agencies that work to preserve the California condor.
5)Exempts DFG, when providing food for free-ranging condors
pursuant to this bill, from provisions of existing law
otherwise prohibiting the transport of dead animals.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits the transport of a dead animal to any place, other
than to a licensed rendering plant, licensed collection
center, animal disease diagnostic laboratory, crematory, or
approved destination in another state, unless a waiver is
granted by the State Veterinarian for certain specified
purposes such as an emergency.
2)Authorizes DFG to provide for the feeding of game birds,
mammals or fish when natural foods are not available and to
provide suitable areas for such feeding.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, costs to DFG in 2010-11 and 2011-12 of approximately
$125,000 to prepare new MOUs (General Fund or grants from
private sources); potential minor ongoing costs, likely less
than $50,000 annually, to periodically review and revise MOUs
and consult with interested parties (General Fund or grants from
private sources).
COMMENTS : This bill establishes guidelines for DFG to enter
into an MOU to provide feeding stations for reintroduced
free-ranging California condors as part of California's condor
recovery program. The guidelines specify the food sources that
are acceptable and criteria for feeding locations to address
health and safety issues.
The California condor is North America's largest terrestrial
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bird, with a wingspan of nine and a half feet. The condor dates
back to before the Pleistocene era and has inhabited this
continent for at least 50,000 years. Condors are scavengers and
feed primarily on dead carrion, which has been a source of
ingested lead ammunition fragments. Although condors once
ranged over much of North America, by the 1940s their range had
been reduced to the coastal mountains of southern California.
Condors were listed as endangered in California in 1967. The
condor reached near extinction in the early 1980s, with less
than 30 individual birds left alive in the wild. Key factors
determined by biologists as contributing to the decline of the
condor include lead poisoning and illegal shooting, in addition
to habitat loss and other factors. Scientists determined that
the only hope for the condor's survival was to institute a
captive breeding program. The last wild birds were captured in
1987, and an intensive captive breeding program was instituted.
Biologists began reintroducing condors back into the wild in
1992. Today they are being reintroduced into the mountains of
southern California north of the Los Angeles basin, in the Big
Sur vicinity of the central California coast, at Pinnacles
National Monument, and near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Just
this year, the first condor nest in California's Pinnacles
National Monument in 100 years was found with a single egg.
Condors typically do not begin breeding until they are seven
years old and normally mate for life.
The Ventana Wildlife Society, one of the principal managers of
the California condor recovery program, notes that feeding of
free-flying condors is essential at this time as part of the
reintroduction effort because young birds are often naive and do
not know where to find food on their own. On-going feeding for
all wild condors also remains critically important to reduce the
threat of lead poisoning from spent ammunition. Although
California law now requires that non-lead ammunition be used in
the condor range it may be years before compliance levels are
such that supplemental feeding will become unnecessary. Many
agencies, including state, federal and non-governmental agencies
are working together to recover the condor to the wild. Today
there are only 87 free-flying condors in the wild in California,
and only 350 total condors alive including those in captivity.
While the captive breeding program has met with tenuous success,
the condor's recovery still hangs in the balance.
AB 1956
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Analysis Prepared by : Diane Colborn / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096 FN:
0003904