LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1066, as amended, Mendoza. Forest practices: timber harvesting
plans.
The Z'Berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person
from conducting timber operations, as defined, unless a timber
harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has
been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and
approved. The act provides that a timber harvesting plan is
effective for a period of not more than 3 years, unless extended as
specified.
The act provides that a timber harvesting plan, on which work has
commenced but not been completed, may be extended by amendment for a
one-year period in order to complete the work, up to a maximum of 2
one-year extensions if 2 requirements are met. The act requires
the notice of extension to include the circumstances that prevented a
timely completion of the work under the plan and an agreement to
comply with the specified law, rules, and regulations as
they exist on the date the extension notice is filed.
This bill would allow an extension of a timber harvesting
plan, on which timber operations have commenced but not been
completed, by amendment for up to a maximum of 4 additional
one-year extensions, if those 2 requirements are met, and in
addition, the plan expired in 2008 or 2009, and those
2 requirements are met and the notice of extension
includes written certification by a registered professional forester
that listed species have not been discovered in the plan area since
approval of the plan and significant physical changes to
the harvest area or adjacent areas have not occurred since the plan's
cumulative impacts were originally assessed .
The bill would authorize an extension by amendment for a plan
approved on or after January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2011,
inclusive, of up to a maximum of 22-year extensions , with
the additional requirement that if, in addition to the
2 requirements, the department find
finds that listed species have not been discovered in the plan
area since approval of the plan and significant physical changes to
the harvest area or adjacent areas have not occurred since the plan's
cumulative impacts were originally assessed. If the department is
not able to make those findings, the department would be authorized
to consider an amendment to the plan and, if approved, to grant an
extension. This bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1,
2012.