| 1 | | - | Amended IN Assembly April 21, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE 20252026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 442Introduced by Assembly Member Hadwick(Coauthor: Assembly Member Tangipa)February 06, 2025 An act to add Section 21080.52 to amend Section 4597.1 of the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality. forestry.LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGESTAB 442, as amended, Hadwick. California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: prescribed fire, thinning, and fuel reduction projects. Zberg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973: working forest management plans: harvest area.Under the Zberg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, the Legislature finds and declares the policy of the state to encourage prudent and responsible forest management of nonindustrial timberlands by approving working forest management plans in advance. Existing law requires the harvest area of a working forest management plan to be contained within a single hydrological area, as defined.This bill would delete the requirement that the harvest area of a working forest management plan be contained within a single hydrological area.The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA exempts from its requirements prescribed fire, reforestation, habitat restoration, thinning, or fuel reduction projects, and certain related activities, undertaken in whole or in part on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire, if those projects and activities meet certain requirements.This bill would exempt from CEQA prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken within a community with a single ingress and egress evacuation route.Because the bill would require the lead agency to determine whether the exemption is applicable to a project, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESNO Bill TextThe people of the State of California do enact as follows:SECTION 1. Section 4597.1 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:4597.1. Notwithstanding Section 4521, unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions govern construction of this article:(a) Long-term sustained yield means the average annual growth sustainable by the inventory predicted at the end of a 100-year planning horizon, or a shorter planning horizon if the forest encompassed by the working forest management plan has reached a balance between growth and yield.(b) Major stand type means a stand that occupies an area equal to or greater than 25 percent of a working forest management plan.(c) Management unit means a geographically identifiable area delineated for silviculture or management purposes. A management unit is intended to reflect an area scheduled for harvest under the plan in any given year, but may also be designated to address specific resource sensitivities.(d) Stand means a geographically identifiable group of trees sufficiently uniform in age-class distribution, composition, and structure and growing on a site of sufficiently uniform quality to be a distinguishable unit.(e) Strata means a grouping of similar stands defined for silvicultural or management purposes, usually according to similarities in stand composition, structure, and age.(f) Sustained yield means the yield of commercial wood that an area of commercial timberland can produce continuously at a given intensity of management consistent with required environmental protection and that is professionally planned to achieve over time a balance between growth and removal. Sustained yield management implies continuous production planned so as to achieve, at the earliest practical time, a balance between growth and harvest.(g) Uneven aged management means forest management with the goal of establishing a well-stocked stand of various age classes, which permits the periodic harvest of individual or small groups of trees to achieve sustained yield objectives of the working forest management plan, and provide for regeneration of trees and maintenance of age class structure.(h) Working forest harvest notice means notice of timber harvest operations, pursuant to an approved working forest management plan, which meets the requirements of Section 4597.11.(i) Working forest landowner means an owner of timberland with less than 10,000 acres who has an approved working forest management plan and is not primarily engaged in the manufacture of forest products.(j) Working forest management plan means a management plan for working forest timberlands, with objectives of maintaining, restoring, or creating uneven aged managed timber stand conditions, achieving sustained yield, and promoting forestland stewardship that protects watersheds, fisheries and wildlife habitats, and other important values. A working forest management plan may include multiple working forest landowners, but shall cover no more than 10,000 acres of timberland. The harvest area, as defined in Section 895.1 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, of a working forest management plan must be contained within a single hydrologic area as defined by State Water Resources Control Boards CalWater 2.2.(k) Working forest timberlands means timberland owned by a working forest landowner.SECTION 1.Section 21080.52 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:21080.52.This division does not apply to prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken within a community with a single ingress and egress evacuation route.SEC. 2.No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code. |
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| 1 | + | CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE 20252026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 442Introduced by Assembly Member Hadwick(Coauthor: Assembly Member Tangipa)February 06, 2025 An act to add Section 21080.52 to the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGESTAB 442, as introduced, Hadwick. California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: prescribed fire, thinning, and fuel reduction projects.The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA exempts from its requirements prescribed fire, reforestation, habitat restoration, thinning, or fuel reduction projects, and certain related activities, undertaken in whole or in part on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire, if those projects and activities meet certain requirements.This bill would exempt from CEQA prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken within a community with a single ingress and egress evacuation route.Because the bill would require the lead agency to determine whether the exemption is applicable to a project, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill TextThe people of the State of California do enact as follows:SECTION 1. Section 21080.52 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:21080.52. This division does not apply to prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken within a community with a single ingress and egress evacuation route.SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code. |
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