BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 380
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Date of Hearing: April 5, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared Huffman, Chair
AB 380 (Chesbro) - As Amended: March 29, 2011
SUBJECT : Resources: Watersheds
SUMMARY : Provides direction to the Board of Forestry (Board)
and CalFIRE to follow when implementing pilot projects and
developing guidance required by regulations governing timber
operations and the protection and restoration of riparian zones
in watersheds with listed adandromous salmonids. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires the Board and CalFIRE, when implementing a pilot
project and developing guidelines required by regulations for
protection and restoration of salmon habitat and listed
salmonid species, to do all of the following:
a) Provide industry, agencies and the public with
opportunity to participate in a transparent manner.
b) Develop guidelines for evaluating and addressing
cumulative effects on a watershed scale.
c) Require the spatial scale of the cumulative effects
analysis to be consistent with site-specific and
cumulative impacts of the project in the watershed.
d) Require the use of reproducible, quantitative
methods of evaluation.
e) Document conclusions and recommendations.
f) Require an evaluation by a person or entity with
relevant training and experience.
g) Consult with and seek comment from appropriate
scientific experts to develop guidelines that are
feasible, enforceable and protective of the public trust.
1)Requires a pilot project to have one or more of the following
goals:
a) Restore fisheries and wildlife
b) Reduce risk of wildfire
c) Recover forest characteristics which produce
high-quality timber
d) Reduce sedimentation and soil loss
e) Achieve long-term carbon sequestration
f) Restore and recover unique attributes of a watershed
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1)Requires a pilot project to be consistent with state and
federal mandates governing coho salmon recovery and
restoration of impaired water bodies.
2)Provides that funding and personnel for pilot projects shall
come from existing department and agency budgets and
personnel, with additional funding to be sought from private
and public sources including educational institutions.
3)Requires all documents that form the basis of the pilot
project to be posted on CalFIRE's Internet Web site. Further
requires the Board or a technical advisory committee to
develop recommendations for providing electronic public access
to all relevant documents that assist CalFIRE in administering
timber harvest regulations on a planning watershed scale.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the Board to adopt district specific forest practice
rules and regulations to ensure continuous growing and
harvesting of commercial forest tree species and to protect
soil, air, fish, wildlife, and water resources, and to
consider the capacity of forest resources to sequester carbon
dioxide.
2)Requires rules for timber operations to include, among other
things, measures for fire prevention and control, soil erosion
control, water quality and watershed control, flood control,
pest and disease control, and for preparation of timber
harvest plans (THPs). Requires the Board in developing these
rules to consider recommendations from the Department of Fish
and Game (DFG) relating to protection of fish and wildlife,
from the State Water Resources Control Board and regional
boards relating to water quality, from the Air Resources Board
and local districts relating to air quality, and from the
Coastal Commission relating to protection of natural and
scenic coastal zone resources in special treatment areas.
3)Requires the Board to adopt rules for control of timber
operations which will result or threaten to result in
unreasonable effects on the beneficial uses of the waters of
the state, including rules to protect streams and riparian
vegetation.
4)Requires, pursuant to Board regulations for watersheds with
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listed anadromous salmonids, that every timber operation be
planned and conducted with the goal to protect, maintain, and
contribute to restoration of properly functioning salmonid
habitat and listed salmonid species. The regulations set
forth specific and detailed requirements applicable to all
timber operations in any watershed with listed anadromous
salmonids for protection of the riparian zone, including a
requirement to consider and reduce adverse cumulative
watershed effects (Title 14, California Code of Regulations, �
916.9).
5)Allows under the regulations for alternative site-specific
measures or non-standard operational provisions to be proposed
in lieu of regulatory requirements if the site-specific plans
will offer a more effective or more feasible way of achieving
the goals and objectives and would result in effects to the
beneficial functions of the riparian zone equal to or more
favorable than expected from application of the regulatory
operational provisions.
6)Requires Board staff and CalFIRE to work with agencies,
stakeholders and appropriate scientific participants in a
transparent process on two pilot projects using site-specific
or non-standard operational provisions, and to make
recommendations to the Board on providing guidance for the
application of site-specific or non-standard operational
provisions. Requires the pilot projects and guidance to
address cumulative and planning watershed impacts.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The author has introduced this bill to provide
direction to CalFIRE and the Board when implementing pilot
projects and developing guidelines required by regulations
promulgated to protect and restore the riparian zone in
watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids. The author
indicates this bill will provide the basis for reforming the
cumulative effects evaluation and response process on
California's private and state forestlands. AB 380 helps
accomplish this by requiring CalFIRE, through pilot projects
required by regulations adopted under subdivision (f) of Public
Resources Code � 4562.7, to follow certain procedures that
incorporate credible experts and representatives of industry,
landowners, agencies, and the public to arrive at a process, and
produce guidelines, to ensure that California's private and
state forestland health -- including vital economic,
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environmental, and social aspects -- are recovered and restored
for the long-term.
On September 9, 2009, the Board adopted the Anadromous Salmonid
Protection (ASP) rules, which include � 916.9, for commercial
timber harvesting on private land in watersheds containing
anadromous salmonid species listed under state or federal
endangered species acts. These rules contain different
requirements for timber operations based on the geographic
location of the watershed and geomorphic characteristics of the
watercourses involved. In recognizing the high degree of
biological and physical variability throughout the state, the
Board included "site-specific plan" provisions that provide
flexibility for landowners to develop site-specific riparian
management to harvest trees that would have otherwise been
retained. Site-specific measures are intended to be in lieu of
standard operational provisions that require, for example,
minimum buffer zones around streams and prohibitions on
harvesting or road-building. To receive approval, these
site-specific plans must result in benefits to the riparian zone
that are equal to or more favorable than those expected from the
prescriptive rules.
For successful implementation of site-specific plans, the Board
found it necessary to, among other things, provide pilot
projects and guidance documents. The pilot projects and
guidance are required under the regulations to address
cumulative and planning watershed impacts. The sponsor of this
bill is concerned that this particular provision is too general
and does not provide enough direction. To ensure the guidelines
resulting from the pilot projects are developed appropriately,
this bill specifically requires that cumulative impacts be
adequately addressed, reproducible methods of evaluation be
used, conclusions and recommendations are documented, and there
is an evaluation by a trained and experienced person. According
to the sponsor, these requirements will provide valuable
guidance for future timber operations utilizing site specific
plans and considering cumulative effects.
Support Arguments : Forests Forever asserts this bill would help
close a loophole in forest practices law in California, by
providing for development of a standard set of tools and
scientific methodologies for measuring cumulative watershed
effects. The Sierra Club, in addition to the cumulative effects
assessment, also note the importance of modernizing processing
of logging information on CalFIRE's Internet Web site and making
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that information readily available to the public. The
California Forestry Association also supports this bill and
emphasizes both the benefits of requiring all stakeholders,
including industry, to participate in the pilot projects, and
the importance of protecting and restoring the riparian zone in
watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids.
Suggested Amendments : The committee staff notes that both the
statutes and the regulations applicable to timber operations in
watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids require that the
timber operations be conducted with the goal to protect,
maintain, and contribute to restoration of properly functioning
salmonid habitat and listed salmonid species, and that the
site-specific or non-standard alternatives also be designed to
meet this goal. This bill states that the pilot projects shall
have one or more of six specified goals, one of which is to
restore fisheries and wildlife. However, since it says" one or
more of the following," it does not clearly have to include the
goal of salmon habitat restoration, though this is the stated
intent. To more clearly track with the requirements of the
regulations, the author and committee may wish to consider a
clarifying amendment to subsection (d), page 4, line 6 as
follows:
(d) A pilot project shall have as its goal to protect, maintain,
and contribute to restoration of properly functioning salmonid
habitat and listed salmonid species, and may also have one or
more of the following goals: �followed by (1) through (6)]
This bill also requires that the guidelines developed as a
result of the pilot project shall be evaluated by a person or
entity with "relevant training and experience," and requires the
Board and CalFIRE to consult with and seek comment from
"appropriate scientific experts." The regulations actually
require that the Director of CalFIRE not accept for inclusion in
a plan any site-specific measures or non-standard operational
provisions if the DFG or two or more participating agencies have
submitted written comments which lead the Director to the
conclusion the proposed measures or provisions will not meet the
goal of restoration of salmon habitat and listed salmonid
species. For this reason, and because DFG is the primary public
trustee for the state's fish and wildlife resources, it is
appropriate that DFG be consulted on the pilot projects and
development of the guidelines. However, the committee is also
aware that DFG's funding for THP review and consultation was
eliminated from this year's budget. Whether that funding will
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be restored was left as an open issue in the Legislature's
budget deliberations earlier this year. At a minimum, the
committee and the author may wish to consider an amendment
clarifying that the appropriate scientific experts shall
include, but not necessarily be limited to, a fisheries
biologist, as follows.
(c) Consult with and seek comment from appropriate scientific
experts , including but not necessarily limited to qualified
fisheries biologists, in order to develop evaluation guidelines
that are feasible, enforceable, and protective of the public
trust?.
Related Legislation : AB 2575 (Chesbro) of 2010 was
substantially similar to this bill but was vetoed by the
Governor. Governor Schwarzenegger in his veto message said, in
part:
"While I believe that it is important that we should
continually improve our forest practices, this bill does not
provide the responsible state agencies with any additional
funding or staff. As a result, these agencies would be forced
to redirect scarce budget dollars and substantial numbers of
staff from existing program priorities and statutorily-mandated
functions. Additionally, this bill would prohibit CalFIRE from
implementing these pilot projects on state forest lands unless
private landowners are willing to undertake the pilot projects
on their private lands. This restriction makes no sense?."
It should be noted that the restriction concerning private lands
referenced by the Governor in his veto message is no longer
contained in this bill.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support Opposition
Forests Forever (sponsor) None on file
Sierra Club California
California Forestry Association
California Licensed Foresters Association
Analysis Prepared by : Diane Colborn / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096
AB 380
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