LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1504, as amended, Skinner. Forest resources: carbon
sequestration.
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, which regulates
timber harvesting, contains legislative findings and declarations
relative to forest resources, including a declaration that it is the
policy of the state to encourage prudent and responsible forest
resource management calculated to serve the public's need for timber
and other forest products, while giving consideration to other
specified public needs. The act also states the Legislature's intent
to create and maintain an effective and comprehensive system of
regulation and use of all timberlands to assure that the goal of
maximum sustained production of high quality timber products is
achieved while giving consideration to specified values.
This bill would include in that list of specified public needs and
that list of specified values sequestration of carbon dioxide. The
bill also would make other legislative findings and declarations
relative to carbon dioxide sequestration as it relates to forests.
The bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, by
March 1, 2012 2011 , to assess the
capacity of its forest and rangeland regulations and nonregulatory
forestry programs to meet or exceed the state's greenhouse gas
reduction goals, consistent with the scoping plan adopted by the
board pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of
2006. The department would be required to publish a draft assessment
by December 1, 2011 2010 , for public
review and comment. The bill would require the board, in consultation
with the department, to convene an independent panel to peer-review
the draft assessment, and would require the department to incorporate
the panel's findings and recommendations or describe in writing the
reasons for rejecting a finding or recommendation. The bill
would provide that the implementation of these requirements is
contingent upon the receipt of sufficient funding.