Bill Text: CA AB3023 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 3023

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force: interagency funding strategy: multiple benefit projects: grant program guidelines.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2024-09-22 - Vetoed by Governor. [AB3023 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB3023-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly April 02, 2024

Amended IN Assembly March 21, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 3023

Introduced by Assembly Member Papan

February 16, 2024

An act to add Section ~~71454~~ 4773 to the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental protection.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 3023, as amended, Papan. ~~Environmental protection: lands and coastal waters: conservation goals: 30x30 goal.~~ Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force: watershed restoration plans: forest resilience actions.

Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and requires the department to be responsible for, among other things, fire protection and prevention, as provided. Existing law establishes the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force and requires the task force to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the state’s “Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan” issued by the task force in January 2021.
Existing law declares that the department has extensive technical expertise in wildland fire prevention and vegetation management on forest, range, and watershed land, and, when appropriately applied, this expertise can have significant public resource benefits, including decreasing high-intensity wildland fires, improving watershed management, and improving carbon resilience, among other benefits.
This bill would require the state to align watershed restoration plans and initiatives with forest resilience actions to achieve more integrated and holistic outcomes. The bill would require the state to coordinate relevant boards, departments, and other stakeholders to incorporate planning for permanent conservation into forest and watershed restoration actions to ensure that landscapes are protected and managed for climate resilience.
The bill would also require the agency and other relevant state agencies to align the grant guidelines of climate change, forest, fire, and watershed restoration programs at state boards and departments to promote greater program coordination and more integrated planning and outcomes.
By Executive Order No. N-82-20, Governor Gavin Newsom directed the Natural Resources Agency to combat the biodiversity and climate crises by, among other things, establishing the California Biodiversity Collaborative and conserving at least 30% of the state’s lands and coastal waters by 2030, known as the 30x30 goal. Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency, in implementing certain pathways and actions to achieve the 30x30 goal, to prioritize specified actions, including conducting public outreach to engage historically marginalized communities in the planning and implementation of the 30x30 goal. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to prepare and submit, on or before March 31, 2024, and annually thereafter, a report to the Legislature on the progress made during the prior calendar year toward achieving the 30x30 goal, as provided.
This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to post on its internet website the criteria used to determine whether or not to approve plans submitted in pursuit of reaching the 30x30 goal, as provided.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) California’s natural and working lands are essential to both mitigating and adapting to climate change. Restoring, managing, and conserving these lands are a critical complement to other direct emissions reductions. Climate-smart land management offers the most immediate, cost effective, and large-scale opportunities for reductions in carbon and other potent greenhouse gas emissions.
(2) The health of California’s source watersheds is critical for secure water supplies, including the ability to buffer large storms and store snowpack. Healthy forests, meadows, and streams help moderate runoff, support reliable water supply, and allow better function of our water storage reservoirs.
(3) Extreme wildfire behavior is transforming the landscapes most important to state water supply. For example, one-quarter of the 7-million-acre area that supplies California’s three largest reservoirs burned between 2012 and 2022. Over 43 percent of that fire was damaging, high-intensity fire.
(4) The forest conditions that support greater and more resilient carbon sequestration and biodiversity are also more resilient to wildfire: larger well-spaced trees maintained by frequent low-intensity fire, often accompanied by healthy mountain meadows. These are the same target conditions that support good watershed function and more predictable water runoff.
(5) Conservation actions are essential to develop and retain these healthy landscape characteristics and ensure that critical areas are managed for public benefits into the future. Strategic conservation can simultaneously help reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, enhance carbon sequestration, improve fire safety and water security, protect biodiversity, and position future generations to better survive our changing climate.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to better align ongoing planning and implementation of landscape treatments to address climate change, wildfire, watershed restoration, and biodiversity conservation actions.

SEC. 2.

Section 4773 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

4773.
(a) In developing the comprehensive implementation strategy required in Section 4771, the state shall align watershed restoration plans and initiatives with forest resilience actions to achieve more integrated and holistic outcomes. The state shall coordinate relevant state boards, departments, and other stakeholders to incorporate planning for permanent conservation into forest and watershed restoration actions to ensure that landscapes are protected and managed for climate resilience.
(b) The Natural Resources Agency and other relevant state agencies shall align the grant guidelines of climate change, forest, fire, and watershed restoration programs at state boards and departments to promote greater program coordination and more integrated planning and outcomes.

SECTION 1.Section 71454 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:
71454.
~~(a)(1)The Natural Resources Agency shall post on its internet website the criteria used to determine whether or not to approve plans submitted in pursuit of reaching the 30x30 goal.~~
~~(2)The specific criteria shall be posted for all zones and habitats within those zones.~~
~~(b)The Natural Resources Agency may instead require the 30x30 program administrator to post the criteria on the administrator’s internet website pursuant to subdivision (a).~~