Bill Text: CA AB2196 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Beaver restoration.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-24 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to suspense file. [AB2196 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB2196-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 19, 2024 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2196
| Introduced by Assembly Member Connolly |
February 07, 2024 |
An act to add Article 2 (commencing with Section 4030) to Chapter 2 of Part 3 of Division 4 of the Fish and Game Code, relating to beaver.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2196, as amended, Connolly.
Beaver restoration.
Existing law, except as provided, authorizes any owner or tenant of land or property that is being damaged or destroyed or is in danger of being damaged or destroyed by certain animals, including, among others, the beaver, to apply to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for a permit to kill the animals. Under existing law, it is unlawful for any person to trap any fur-bearing mammal for purposes of recreation or commerce in fur. Under existing law, a violation of the Fish and Game Code, or of any rule, regulation, or order made or adopted under that code, is a crime.
This bill would require the department to, through consultation with beaver restoration program partners, as defined, develop a program to promote beaver restoration across California, as provided. The bill would, no later than January 1, 2026, require the department to expand the
program by, among other things, developing a licensing scheme that includes the issuance and administration of permits for the capture, handling, transport, and release of beavers on public and private lands, except as specified. Because a violation of the program’s requirements would be a crime, the 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: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) The North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) is a keystone species that is native to California and was once prevalent in watersheds throughout the state.
(b) A legacy of beaver trapping, exploitation, and eradication has significantly diminished the beaver population across California, reducing the ecological benefits beavers provide to California’s watersheds, wildlife, and climate.
(c) Beavers provide habitat for a myriad of species, increase biodiversity,
and are integral to the conservation and recovery of imperiled species.
(d) Beavers are ecosystem engineers who improve climate change resiliency and watershed health, thereby providing essential ecosystem services to both wildlife and human communities.
(e) Beaver-created dams, ponds, and associated wetlands help mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, drought, and wildfire by enhancing carbon sequestration, increasing water storage, maintaining stream flows, providing flood and erosion control, and establishing riparian corridors that serve as critical fire refugia.
(f) Beaver dams also improve water quality, repair degraded channels, reconnect flood plains, and create and expand diverse wetland and
aquatic habitats that support a multitude of species.
(g) Recognizing that beavers are one of the most cost-efficient, sustainable solutions for ecological restoration and climate change resilience, Native American tribes, state and federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, private landowners, ranchers, scientists, restoration practitioners, and academics are working in partnership to successfully implement beaver restoration projects throughout California.
(h) A proactive, modernized approach to beaver management with a focus on coexistence strategies and high-impact, low-disturbance techniques to bring beavers back to the landscape will enhance the ongoing efforts to restore ecological function to California’s watersheds and increase community resilience to climate
change.
(i) Beaver restoration includes coexistence, habitat enhancement and expansion, process-based mimicry, and relocation.
(j) California Indian tribes possess traditional knowledge of the ecosystem benefits that beavers provide for California watersheds and wetlands.
(k) Facilitating beaver restoration projects will greatly accelerate stream and wetland restoration and thus would be an enormous asset in achieving California’s goals for wildfire and drought resiliency protections provided by the 30x30 goal, developed pursuant to Executive Order No. N-82-20, and nature-based solutions to climate change.
SEC. 2.
Article 2 (commencing with Section 4030) is added to Chapter 2 of Part 3 of Division 4 of the Fish and Game Code, to read:Article 2. Beaver Restoration Program
4030.
(a) The department shall, through consultation with beaver restoration program partners, develop a program to promote beaver restoration across California by revising policies and guidelines relating to beavers, coordinating restoration efforts, proactively mitigating human-beaver conflict, and relocating beavers into watersheds.(b)No later than January 1, 2026, the department shall expand the program described in subdivision (a) to do both of the following:
(1)Develop a required training for the capture, handling, transport, and release of beavers on public and private lands.
(2)Develop a licensing scheme that includes the issuance and administration of permits for the capture, handling, transport, and release of beavers on public and private lands. Any costs imposed shall not exceed the reasonable costs to the department for the implementation and administration of the licensing scheme.
(c)Nothing in this article shall be interpreted to imply that federally recognized tribes shall be required to obtain training or a permit to capture, handle, transport, or release beavers on lands held in federal trust for a tribe’s benefit.
(d)
(b) As used in this article, “beaver restoration program partners” means federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, federally recognized tribes, nonfederally recognized California Native American tribes included on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission, academic programs, and other entities.
