LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 144, as amended, Pavley. Forest resources: management.
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest
Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber
operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered
professional forester has been submitted for the timber operations to
the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and approved. The
act requires a person who owns timberlands that are to be devoted to
uses other than the growing of timber to file an application for
conversion with the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The California Forest Legacy Program Act of 2007 establishes the
California Forest Legacy Program to conserve private forest lands by
authorizing the department to acquire conservation easements of
eligible properties according to specified criteria.
This bill would require the department, in order to further the
goals of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and to
enhance the capability of forest lands to sequester carbon, to
develop options and incentives for the management of private forests
pursuant to the criteria established under the California Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006, to establish, in consultation with the
State Air Resources Board, scientific standardized baselines at the
regional and state scales to project future scenarios of carbon
emissions and sequestration, and to develop, in consultation with the
State Air Resources Board and the Department of Fish and Game,
regulations that establish mitigation requirements for forest land
conversions. The bill would require the department to impose a fee on
an applicant for conversion that fully offsets the department's
costs for implementing the above requirement as it relates to
conversion.
The bill also would state that it is the intent of the Legislature
to enact legislation to develop a planning watershed-scale timber
harvesting permit in order to facilitate long-term planning, improve
information that is available to the public and reviewing agencies,
ensure meaningful cumulative impact assessments, and provide a more
cost-efficient permitting program for applicants.
(2) Existing law, the Forest and Rangeland Resources Assessment
and Policy Act of 1977, requires the Director of Forestry and Fire
Protection, under policy guidance from the State Board of Forestry
and Fire Protection and in consultation with the Secretary of the
Natural Resources Agency, to prepare and submit a full and updated
forest and rangeland resource assessment and analysis by January 1,
1987, and by January 1 of each 5th year thereafter. The board is
required to prepare a forest resource policy statement based on the
review and assessment.
This bill would require that the review and assessment include
continued publication of trendline data on carbon stocks, at multiple
geographic scales, on the state's forest lands. The bill would
require the director to collaborate with the State Air Resources
Board for the development and maintenance of the trendline data for
the purposes of demonstrating consistency with the California Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006 for the forest sector and to identify
the best available data sources and outstanding data needs necessary
to develop and maintain the trendline data.
Comments/questions on SB 144 (Pavley): Forest resources: management.
