Bill Text: CA AB2344 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Wildlife connectivity: transportation projects.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Passed) 2022-09-30 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 964, Statutes of 2022. [AB2344 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB2344-Amended.html
2023, 2024, the department shall ensure that, if the project is located in an area identified as a connectivity area or a natural landscape area in the wildlife connectivity action plan pursuant to Section 1962 of the Fish and Game Code, an assessment of potential barriers to wildlife movement is done before commencing project planning and again during project design. The department shall submit the assessment to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. If any structural barrier to wildlife
movement exists, remediation of the problem shall be designed into the project by the implementing agency. New projects or improvements to existing infrastructure or projects shall be constructed so that they do not present a barrier to fish and wildlife movement. When addressing barriers to wildlife movement, plans and projects shall be developed in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Bill Title: Wildlife connectivity: transportation projects.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Passed) 2022-09-30 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 964, Statutes of 2022. [AB2344 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB2344-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 06, 2022 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2344
| Introduced by Assembly Members Friedman and Kalra (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Mullin) |
February 16, 2022 |
An act to add Chapter 14 (commencing with Section 1960) to Division 2 of the Fish and Game Code, and to add Article 3.8 (commencing with Section 158) to Chapter 1 of Division 1 of the Streets and Highways Code, relating to fish and wildlife.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2344, as amended, Friedman.
Wildlife connectivity: transportation projects.
Under existing law, the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) has jurisdiction over the conservation, protection, and management of fish, wildlife, native plants, and habitat necessary for biologically sustainable populations of those species. Existing law authorizes DFW to approve compensatory mitigation credits for wildlife connectivity actions taken under specified programs.
Existing law vests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) with full possession and control of the state highway system. Existing law requires Caltrans to complete assessments of potential barriers to anadromous fish prior to commencing any project using state or federal transportation funds and requires projects to be constructed without presenting barriers to fish passage.
This bill would require DFW to investigate,
study, and identify those areas in the state that are essential to wildlife movement and habitat connectivity and that are threatened by specified factors. The bill would require DFW, in coordination with Caltrans, to establish a wildlife connectivity action plan on or before January 1, 2024, and to update the plan at least once every 5 years thereafter. The bill would require the plan to include, among other things, maps that identify the locations of certain areas, including connectivity areas and natural landscape areas, as defined.
The bill would require Caltrans, in consultation with DFW, to establish a wildlife connectivity project list of wildlife passage projects where the implementation of wildlife passage features would reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and enhance wildlife connectivity. The bill would require the list to be included in the wildlife connectivity action plan. The bill would require Caltrans to complete the initial list on or before January
1, 2024, and to update the list no later than January 1, 2025, and every 2 years thereafter. Before completing the initial list or an update to the list, the bill would require Caltrans to make a draft list publicly available for public comment. On or before January 1, 2026, and on an annual basis thereafter, the bill would require Caltrans to implement at least 10 projects identified on the wildlife connectivity project list. The bill would require Caltrans, in consultation with DFW, to prioritize the implementation of projects on the list based on specified factors, including, among others, the project’s ability to enhance connectivity and permeability within a connectivity area or natural landscape area identified in the wildlife connectivity action plan.
The bill would require Caltrans to develop a programmatic environmental review process with appropriate state and federal regulatory agencies for remediating barriers to wildlife movement that will streamline
the permitting process for wildlife crossing projects. The bill would require Caltrans to complete assessments of potential barriers to wildlife movement before commencing any project that uses state or federal transportation funds and that is located in an area identified as a connectivity area or a natural landscape area in the wildlife connectivity action plan. The bill would require Caltrans to submit these assessments to DFW. The bill would also require projects to be constructed without presenting barriers to fish and wildlife movement.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) Roads, highways, and other transportation infrastructure can adversely impact wildlife, including endangered species, both by causing direct mortality from vehicle collisions as well as genetic isolation by reducing or eliminating habitat connectivity by impairing wildlife movement.
(2) Climate change is a significant threat to California’s biodiversity. Because climate change is expected to significantly alter the habitat, ranges, and movement patterns of numerous species, ensuring that
wildlife can safely move among protected habitat areas is essential if California is to maintain its native species and biodiversity in the face of rapid climate change.
(3) According to the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, every year in California, thousands of large and midsized animals are reported killed by vehicles in the state, including mule deer, black bears, coyotes, and mountain lions. Most roadkill is unreported, with tens of thousands of additional large and midsized animals and hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions, of small animals likely to be killed on California roads each year.
(4) In California, adverse impacts from roads are ranked a high or very high risk to all native turtle and tortoise species, 72 percent of snake species, 50 percent of frog and toad
species, 18 percent of lizard species, and 17 percent of salamander species.
(5) Threatened and endangered species and populations such
as the San Joaquin kit fox, California tiger salamander, arroyo toad, mountain lions, and numerous others are regularly killed by vehicles on California roads, further harming these already imperiled species.
(6) During 2016 and 2020, inclusive, over 44,000 collisions reported to or by the Department of the California Highway Patrol involved large wildlife. State Farm Insurance company has estimated that there are greater than 23,000 claims annually in California from collisions with deer. Collisions between vehicles and wildlife are a major threat to public safety. On average, five people are killed and over 250 people are injured in California in vehicle collisions with wildlife each year. In 2018 alone, at least 314 people were injured and five people were killed in California in vehicle collisions with wildlife.
(7) Other states, including Washington, Idaho, and Maine, are
systematically collecting roadkill data for purposes of identifying wildlife vehicle wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots and making the data publicly available.
(8) The University of California, Davis, estimated that reported wildlife-vehicle collisions with large mammals caused over $1,000,000,000 in economic and social costs to Californians from 2016 to 2020, inclusive. Many of these types of collisions go unreported or underrecorded, as some people may choose not to report crashes, people may not see animal carcasses on the road or in the right-of-way (especially if they are medium- or small-sized animals, including amphibians, reptiles, and birds), or
wounded animals may move beyond the right-of-way before they die. Therefore, the wildlife death tolls, injuries to people, and costs could be much greater.
(9) Wildlife crossing structures can increase driver safety and are highly effective at reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions. Numerous readily available measures exist to avoid, minimize, or mitigate the impacts of roads on wildlife, including, but not limited to, the placement of exclusion and directional fencing and the construction of wildlife-friendly underpasses, overpasses, culverts, and elevated sections of road in key wildlife connectivity areas, and have proved successful in other states. For example, wildlife passage features reduced vehicle-wildlife
wildlife-vehicle collisions along U.S. Route 97 in Oregon by 85 percent, along State Highway 9 in Colorado by 90 percent, and along Interstate 15 in Utah by 98.5 percent. Properly sited and designed wildlife passage features save costs to society from fewer wildlife vehicle wildlife-vehicle collisions beyond the cost of constructing them. These safety measures can be applied to new transportation infrastructure as well as retrofitted to existing infrastructure to effectively reduce collisions.
(10) Voluntary measures and policies to protect wildlife
and habitat connectivity have been inadequate to minimize or mitigate the impacts of highways and roads on wildlife, including threatened and endangered species.
(11) Executive Order No. N-82-20 declared that it is the goal of the state to conserve at least 30 percent of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030 in a manner that protects and restores biodiversity, enables enduring conservation measures on a broad range of landscapes, builds climate resilience, reduces risk from extreme climate events, and contributes to the state’s efforts to combat climate change. Wildlife connectivity contributes to the preservation and restoration of biodiversity by ensuring that wildlife has the opportunity to move through the landscape to forage, find mates and reproduce, seek shelter from stochastic events like flooding or wildfires, and
adapt to the impacts of climate change.
(12) The state highway system is under the full possession and control of the Department of Transportation and, as currently maintained, it imposes significant barriers to wildlife habitat connectivity.
(b) It is therefore the policy of the state to protect, restore, and enhance the functioning of fish and wildlife and habitat connectivity in connection with the planning, construction, improvement, operation, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure throughout the state.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that, in carrying out the policy of the state, the Department of Transportation shall, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, consider and,
to the maximum extent feasible, incorporate measures for the avoidance, minimization, and mitigation of impacts to wildlife connectivity from the construction, improvement, operation, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure throughout the state.
SEC. 2.
Chapter 14 (commencing with Section 1960) is added to Division 2 of the Fish and Game Code, to read:CHAPTER 14. Wildlife Connectivity Action Plan
1960.
For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:(a) “Connectivity area” includes either or both of the following:
(1) A roadkill hotspot, which includes any of the following areas:
(A) An area where vehicle collisions with large animals, such as deer, exceed 2 two per year per mile.
(B) An area where vehicle collisions
with smaller animals, such as salamanders, exceed 10 per year per mile.
(C) An area where road or high-volume traffic conditions are likely to inhibit wildlife approach to the roadway.
(2) An area identified by the department or other report, study, or plan produced by a government, academic, or organizational entity that the department determines is important for ecological connectivity between natural landscape areas.
(b) “Natural landscape area” means a natural, intact habitat area with high ecological integrity that provides core habitat for wildlife and supports native biodiversity.
(c) “Permeability” means the quality of a heterogeneous landscape to provide for passage of animals.
(c)
(d) “Wildlife connectivity action plan” means the plan established pursuant to Section 1962.
(d)
(e) “Wildlife connectivity project list” means the list of projects established
pursuant to Section 1963.
(e)
(f) “Wildlife passage features” means culverts, underpasses, overpasses, bridges, directional fencing, barrier breaks, roadside animal detection systems, fish ladders, wildlife monitoring devices, roadside animal detection systems, elevated road segments, or other features, supported by a functional or potentially functional ecological buffer of habitat on either side that ensures or has the potential to ensure use of the feature, that are designed or have the potential to be managed or
restored using the best available science to improve the ability of fish or wildlife to move safely across transportation infrastructure into the future.
1961.
The department shall investigate, study, and identify, using the best available science and data and prioritizing wildlife movement, biodiversity, and habitat, those areas in the state that are essential to wildlife movement and habitat connectivity and that are threatened by any of the following:(a) Anticipated effects of climate change, including drought, sea level rise, and other stressors.
(b) Construction, maintenance, and operation of transportation and other infrastructure.
(c) New residential, commercial, and industrial development.
(d) Other human-caused barriers that negatively affect wildlife habitat and movement.
1962.
(a) The department, in coordination with the Department of Transportation, shall establish a wildlife connectivity action plan that includes all of the following:(1) An assessment of information analyzed pursuant to Section 1961.
(2) Data on wildlife-vehicle collisions recorded by the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Transportation, the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis, and other third-party systems, if applicable, and data collected by the department pursuant to Section 1023.
(3) Maps that identify locations of all of the following:
(A) Migration, daily movement, and dispersal patterns of existing populations of species that are at risk from habitat fragmentation or barriers to species movement.
(B) Natural landscape areas.
(C) Connectivity areas.
(D) Existing wildlife crossings.
(E) Potential barriers to wildlife movement. movement, including priority barriers to wildlife movement on the state highway system identified by the
department in its report entitled “California Wildlife Barriers 2020” published in March 2020 and in any subsequent update to that report.
(F) Areas requiring additional monitoring or research.
(4) Protocols for postcompletion monitoring of wildlife connectivity projects to assess their effectiveness in establishing, maintaining, and promoting wildlife movement.
(5) An assessment of existing and potential opportunities to collaborate with and enter into agreements with Native American tribes, relevant state and federal agencies, land conservancies, and local governments.
(6) An assessment of existing and potential opportunities to work with private
property owners to connect high-value connectivity habitat and preserve important connectivity areas through conservation easements, land use agreements, or other conservation incentive programs on specific parcels that would contribute to a measurable outcome of improved wildlife movement.
(7) The wildlife connectivity project list.
(8) The status of the department’s progress in locating, assessing, and remediating barriers to wildlife movement and the measured
effectiveness of completed crossings by assessing postcompletion monitoring information.
(9) Input from relevant state agencies, local government, federal agencies, nongovernmental conservation organizations, and academic institutions.
(10) Any additional information that the department and the Department of Transportation deem necessary and appropriate to carry out the intent and purposes of this chapter.
(b) The department and the Department of Transportation shall consult with and actively seek the involvement of both federally recognized and non-federally
nonfederally recognized Native American tribes in the development of the wildlife connectivity action plan.
(c) (1) The department shall complete the initial wildlife connectivity action plan on or before January 1, 2024, and shall update the action plan at least once every five years and may amend the action plan before a full update as new research and data become available or changes in conditions affecting wildlife and wildlife-human interactions occur.
(2) After the initial action plan or an update to the action plan is completed, the department and the Department of Transportation shall publish the action plan or updated action plan on their respective internet websites and the department shall submit the action plan
or updated action plan to the Governor and to the Legislature in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
1963.
(a) The Department of Transportation, in consultation with the department, shall establish a list of wildlife passage projects where the implementation of wildlife passage features would reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and enhance wildlife connectivity.(b) (1) The Department of Transportation shall complete the initial wildlife connectivity project list on or before January 1, 2024, and shall update the wildlife connectivity project list no later than January 1, 2025, and every two years thereafter.
(2) Before completing the initial wildlife connectivity project list or an update
to the list, the Department of Transportation shall make a draft list publicly available and provide an opportunity for public comment on the draft list.
(3) After the initial wildlife connectivity project list or an update to the list is completed, the Department of Transportation and the department shall make the list or updated list publicly available on their respective internet websites and the Department of Transportation shall submit the list or updated list to the Governor and Legislature in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(c) The Department of Transportation, in consultation with the department, shall prioritize the implementation of projects on the wildlife connectivity project list based on all of the following:
(1) The project’s ability to enhance connectivity and permeability within a connectivity area or natural landscape area identified in the wildlife connectivity action plan.
(2) The logistics surrounding implementation of the wildlife passage features, including, but not limited to, the ease or capability of facilitating necessary land acquisitions to provide an ecological buffer, public support, and the ability of the project to facilitate functional wildlife movement or enhance public safety into the future.
(3) Whether the project would do any of the following:
(A) Substantially increase climate-resilient wildlife connectivity for fish and wildlife.
(B) Substantially decrease the likelihood of collisions between wildlife and motorists.
(C) Contribute to the survival or recovery of any species or population of a species, including, but not limited to, species at risk from roads and habitat fragmentation, species listed as a threatened species or endangered species pursuant to the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. Sec. 1531 et seq.) or as a candidate species, threatened species, or endangered species pursuant to the California Endangered Species Act (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 2050) of Division 3).
(4) Any other relevant considerations.
