BILL ANALYSIS �
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| SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER |
| Senator Fran Pavley, Chair |
| 2011-2012 Regular Session |
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BILL NO: AB 1414 HEARING DATE: June 14, 2011
AUTHOR: Committee on Natural Resources URGENCY: No
VERSION: As Introduced CONSULTANT: Newsha Ajami
DUAL REFERRAL: No FISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Forestry: timber harvesting.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act (Act) of 1973 institutes
a set of requirements for forest resource management and timber
harvesting. Among other things, the Act includes the following
provisions:
1. Defines "timber operations" and requires the rules and
regulations adopted by the Board of Forestry and Fire
Protection (Board) to apply to the conduct of timber
operations after January 1, 1988.
2. Requires the Board to divide the state into at least
three districts based on differing physical characteristics
and creates district technical advisory committees to
advise the Board on the establishment of forest practice
rules for each district.
3. Defines "cutover land" as land that has borne a crop of
commercial timber from which at least 70% of the
merchantable original growth timber stand has been removed
by logging or destroyed by fire, insects, or tree diseases.
4. Specifies minimum standard stocking requirements to
ensure that timberlands are occupied by well-distributed
countable trees that became effective January 1, 1974.
Timberlands harvested prior to adoption of stocking
standards in1974 are exempt from these minimum
requirements.
5. Establishes rules to minimize the effect of erosion on
watercourses and lakes through maintenance of installed
drainage facilities and soil stabilization treatments on
skid trails, roads and landings.
6. Exempts from the Act a person engaged in forest
management whose activates are limited to cutting, removal,
1
or sale of timber or other solid wood forest products from
the species Taxus Brevifolia (Pacific Yew).
PROPOSED LAW
This bill amends the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act (Act) of
1973 by making technical changes and repealing outdated
provisions in the act regarding, timber operations, district
technical advisory committees, and a few exemptions.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
The California Licensed Foresters Association claims that AB
1414 is a "good government" bill that streamlines the Forest
Practice Act by eliminating hundreds of unnecessary words from
the Public Resources Code.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None Received.
COMMENTS
District Technical Advisory Committees
AB 2351 (Chapter 56, Statutes of 1993) eliminated the district
technical advisory committees. This bill would delete obsolete
references to these committees.
Cutover land
When the Act was enacted in 1973, standing timber volume was
taxed "ad valorem." To avoid annual county property taxes on
standing timber, landowners could harvest 70% of their land
prematurely to create a cutover land. In 1976, the Legislature
replaced the property tax on standing timber with a state timber
yield tax. The timber yield tax is a tax on the value of
harvested timber. As such, the cutover land provisions in the
Act no longer have legal significance. This bill would delete
the definition of cutover land and references to it.
Stocking requirements
When the Forest Practice Act was enacted in 1974, some
exemptions were put in to protect the landowners that were
already operating timberlands from complying with the new
stocking requirements. These provisions no longer are applicable
and would be deleted by this bill
Erosion on watercourses and lakes
This provision is redundant in the Act therefore is proposed to
be eliminated under this bill.
Taxus Brevifolia (Pacific Yew).
2
Pacific Yew is a small evergreen that includes taxol. It was
discovered in 1980's that taxol can be used in cancer treatment.
At that time the Act was amended to include some exemptions for
the harvesting of Pacific Yew in order to make sure that state
regulations would not get in the way of life-saving treatments.
However, today, taxol is produced semi-synthetically; therefore
there is no need for these exemptions. Pacific Yew is in the
forest service's watch list. Eliminating this provision, as
proposed by this bill, is also beneficial in protecting this
species.
SUPPORT
California Licensed Foresters Association
OPPOSITION
None Received
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