BILL NUMBER: AB 2575INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Chesbro FEBRUARY 19, 2010 An act to add Article 5.5 (commencing with Section 4564) to Chapter 8 of Part 2 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, relating to resources. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2575, as introduced, Chesbro. Resources: watersheds. The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, among other things, prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and unless the plan has been approved. Existing law requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt certain forest practice rules and regulations to minimize the effects of erosion on water resources and lakes. This bill would require the department when implementing a pilot project to protect and repair the riparian zone in watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids to, among other things, ensure that the industry, agencies, and public have balanced involvement in the pilot projects and that the pilot project have certain goals. The bill would require the department, by July 1, 2011, to place all electronically available logging plan information on a planning watershed basis on the department's Internet Web site in an organized and easily accessible manner. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) There are crucial problems within the watersheds of California that have resulted, to a large extent, in the listing of fish and other wildlife species under the California Endangered Species Act or federal Endangered Species Act. (b) There are numerous water bodies in California that have been declared by the California Environmental Protection Agency and the State Water Resources Control Board to be impaired due to excessive sedimentation, high water temperatures, and pollutants. (c) California timberlands have been significantly depleted of their timberland value, and economic stresses have devalued the existing timber resources and created an extreme "boom and bust" cycle for the industry and its workers, as well as drastic liquidation of much essential infrastructure. (d) The overstocked young growth of much of California's timberlands has led to greatly increased risk of catastrophic wildfire over large areas and in proximity to and surrounding many places inhabited by human communities. (e) Sequestration of carbon in forest lands is a vital component in slowing climate change, and adequate understanding and actions to respond to this need have not been determined nor implemented. (f) These problems have not only significantly and adversely impacted the natural resources and watersheds of California, but have similarly impacted the lives, health, safety, private property, and general welfare of Californians. (g) The regions of California that have state or federal listed anadromous salmonid species are often predominately forest lands that are subject to the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 4511) of Part 3 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, for purposes of review and approval of logging plans. These plans include, but are not limited to, timber harvest plans (THPs), nonindustrial timber management plans (NTMPs), Sustained Yield Plans (SYPs), and Program Timberland Environmental Impact Reports (PTEIR). (h) There has been, and continues to be, a separation and isolation of the processes of extraction of forest land resources from the processes of watershed restoration and other recovery needs. Logging plans are approved and carried out in a system that is disconnected from efforts of the public and the state to restore and enhance fisheries' habitat, as well as cope with the other problems described above. This causes inefficient allocations of funding, material, and personnel with no comprehensive approach to the recognition and correction of problems which, in turn, leads to the continued deterioration of habitat, watershed and forest health, timber quality, and fire safety. (i) Significant, but often limited, gains have been made in forest land resource protection and conservation since the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, including the application of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and various state and federal water quality and fish and game statutes and regulations. These statutes and regulations have led to some improvements, including, among other things, the fact that logs are no longer yarded down streambeds, landings are not placed in streams, riparian buffers have evolved, and lower impact road building techniques are required. (j) Improvements are still to be made, however, and the weakest aspect of California's forest practices is the failure to manage a process that will adequately evaluate and respond to cumulative effects. It is this process that can actually address the issues raised in these legislative findings. A good cumulative effects process can provide the information necessary to restore and recover fish and wildlife populations, to improve the quality and quantity of timber, to take actions to reduce fire hazards, to sequester carbon, to produce energy, and to create jobs in taking on these vitally important tasks. SEC. 2. Article 5.5 (commencing with Section 4564) is added to Chapter 8 of Part 2 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, to read: Article 5.5. Comprehensive Forest Land Recovery and Restoration Act 4564. The department shall, when implementing a pilot project pursuant to a regulation adopted in accordance with subdivision (f) of Section 4562.7, to protect and repair the riparian zone in watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids, comply with all of the following: (a) The department shall provide the industry, agencies, and public with balanced equity and involvement in the pilot project, which shall be represented by appropriately qualified representatives respected by all parties. (b) The pilot project shall result in the adoption of guidelines for conducting a cumulative effects evaluation and response on a planning watershed scale, supported by the industry, agencies, and public, and shall address the cumulative and planning watershed impacts, including project-specific issues or site-specific issues, or both. (c) The department shall consult with credible experts in order to achieve a sound process that is feasible, enforceable, and of a standard that is protective of the public trust. Topics included in the findings of the pilot project shall include qualitative and quantitative methods, repeatability, documentation, expertise, scale, and adequacy of analysis. (d) The pilot project shall have the following goals: (1) Restore fisheries and wildlife habitat. (2) Reduce the risk of wildfire. (3) Recover forest characteristics which will produce high-quality timber. (4) Reduce sedimentation and soil loss. (5) Achieve optimum carbon sequestration. (6) Restore and recover unique attributes of a given planning watershed. (e) The pilot project shall address specific requirements of state and federal mandates, including, but not limited to, coho recovery and restoring impaired water bodies. (f) Funding and personnel for the pilot projects shall be utilized from existing department and responsible agencies' budgets and personnel. Additional funding shall be sought from private and public sources, statewide and nationally, with an emphasis on receiving support from educational institutions. 4565. On or before July 1, 2011, the department shall place all electronically available logging plan information on a planning watershed basis on the department's Internet Web site in a manner that is organized by a particular planning watershed and easily accessible to the public.