Bill Text: CA SB977 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Grazing land: California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2022-08-11 - August 11 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. [SB977 Detail]

Download: California-2021-SB977-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Senate  April 20, 2022

Amended  IN  Senate  March 09, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 977

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Introduced by Senator Laird

February 10, 2022

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An act to add Division 10.7 (commencing with Section 12500) to the Public Resources Code, relating to grazing land.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 977, as amended, Laird. Grazing land: California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program.

The Wildlife Conservation Law of 1947 establishes the Wildlife Conservation Board in the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Existing law requires the board to investigate, study, and determine the areas in the state that are most suitable for certain wildlife-related purposes.

Existing law establishes the California Farmland Conservancy Program Act, to be administered generally by the Department of Conservation, and provides that it is the intent of the act to, among other things, encourage voluntary, long-term private stewardship of agricultural lands by offering landowners financial incentives, encourage local land use planning for orderly and efficient urban growth and conservation of agricultural land, and encourage improvements to enhance long-term sustainable agricultural uses.

This bill would, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, establish the California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program. The bill would require the board to administer the program to award block grants to eligible entities, as defined, to administer, plan, and implement local programs to enhance and or restore California’s nonpublic private rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands by contracting with landowners or lessees for projects to implement conservation ranching practices, as specified. The bill would require the board to prioritize block grants that result in projects that meet specified criteria. develop program grant guidelines and would require the board and any program grantee, in evaluating proposed projects, to consider specified selection criteria. The bill would authorize permit the board to authorize a block program grantee to use not more than 30% of the block grant moneys for specified administrative and outreach purposes relating to the program. The bill would require each block program grantee, on or before April 1 of each year and until the project is completed, a date determined by the board in the grant agreement, to submit to the board a an annual report describing and evaluating the implementation of the project and the use of the block grant moneys for the project during the previous year, as specified.

Digest Key

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

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Bill Text

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

SECTION 1.

 Division 10.7 (commencing with Section 12500) is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

DIVISION 10.7. California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program

CHAPTER  1. General Provisions

12500.

 (a) This division shall be known, and may be cited, as the California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program.

(b) This division shall become operative upon an appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of the program.

12501.

 The California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program is hereby created subject to the requirements of this division. The objectives of the program are to restore and enhance the ecological health of private rangelands.

12502.

 For purposes of this division, the following definitions apply:

(a)“Block grant” means a grant awarded by the board to an eligible entity to administer, plan, and implement a local program pursuant to this division.

(b)“Block grantee” means an eligible entity awarded a block grant.

(c)

(a) “Board” means the Wildlife Conservation Board.

(d)

(b) “Eligible entity” means a regional conservancy, resource conservation district, nonprofit organization, local governmental agency, state agency, federal agency, or California Native American tribe. tribe, or other entity as identified by the board.

(e)

(c) “Local program” means a local program implemented by a block program grantee within a defined area of consistent or connected ecosystem values to meet the goals objectives of the program.

(f)

(d) “Management plan” includes, but is not limited to, a conservation or grazing plan adopted by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service and a habitat management plan. A management plan may shall include science-based goals and actions to maintain or improve the ecological function of the private rangeland, grazing land, or grassland habitat, including, but not limited to, supporting a diversity and abundance of native plants and animals species and other cobenefits benefits such as climate resilience. All practices funded through this division shall be consistent with biodiversity conservation management, including conserving and managing native plant communities.

(g)

(e) “Nonprofit organization” means an exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

(h)“Nonpublic rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands” means rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands not owned by, or under the jurisdiction of, the state, or any city, county, district, authority, or public corporation, or any agency thereof.

(i)“Productive rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands” means land that is dominated by herbaceous plants and that may include oak woodlands, mixed forests, and vernal pools that are grazed by domestic livestock

(f) “Private rangeland” means land not owned, operated, or managed by a local, state, or federal governmental entity, authority, or public corporation on which the existing vegetation, whether growing naturally or through management, is suitable for grazing or browsing of domestic livestock for at least a portion of the year.

(j)

(g) “Program” means the California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program created pursuant to Section 12501.

(h) “Program grantee” means an eligible entity awarded a grant to administer, plan, and implement local programs to meet the objectives of this division.

(k)

(i) “Project” means an agreement between a block program grantee and a landowner or lessee of rangelands, grazing lands, or grasslands for the block grantee private rangelands to award grant moneys through its local program to the landowner or lessee to implement conservation ranching practices on the subject property that meet the objectives of the program.

(l)

(j) “Regional conservancy” means the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, California Tahoe Conservancy, Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy, San Diego River Conservancy, San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, San Joaquin River Conservancy, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, State Coastal Conservancy, and or any other conservancy established by law.

(m)

(k) “Regional plan” means a plan that provides guidance for the identification of wildlife, habitat, habitat connectivity, and ecological resource conservation priorities at a geographic scale of relevant ecologically defined units such as watersheds or ecoregions. A regional plan may include, but is not limited to, a natural community conservation plan approved pursuant to the Natural Community Conservation Planning Act (Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 2800) of Division 3 of the Fish and Game Code) and or a regional conservation assessment or regional conservation investment strategy approved pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 1850) of Division 2 of the Fish and Game Code.

(n)

(l) “Resource conservation district” means a resource conservation district established pursuant to Division 9 (commencing with Section 9001).

(m) “Subject property” means a property, or portion of a property, proposed to be covered by the grant.

CHAPTER  2. Program Administration

12510.

 (a) The board shall administer the California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program to award block grants to eligible entities to administer, plan, and implement local programs to enhance or restore California’s nonpublic rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands by contracting with landowners or lessees for projects to implement conservation ranching practices. private rangelands.

(b) The board shall use not more than 5 percent of the moneys appropriated for purposes of the program for its costs to administer the program.

CHAPTER  3. Program Implementation

12520.

(a)In awarding block grants pursuant to this division, the board shall prioritize eligible entities that will administer, plan, and implement local programs that will result in projects that meet any of the following criteria:

(1)The project has the greatest potential for restoring, enhancing, and protecting productive rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands, especially those that are at risk of destruction, drastic modification, or significant curtailment of habitat values.

12520.

 (a) The board shall develop program grant guidelines, which shall include eligibility and selection criteria that further the objectives of the program.

(b) In evaluating proposed projects, the board and any program grantee shall consider the following selection criteria:

(1) The potential for restoring, enhancing, and protecting biodiversity on the subject property.

(2) Threats to the subject property, including risk of destruction, drastic modification, or significant curtailment of habitat values.

(2)

(3) The project is adjacent, or in close proximity, proximity of the subject property to a state wildlife area, national wildlife refuge, or land enrolled in a conservation easement or wildlife conservation program.

(3)The project is consistent with a regional plan.

(4) The project provides additional Additional environmental cobenefits benefits to other species or natural resource concerns values such as climate resilience, stewardship of healthy soils, promotion of biodiversity, including of native plants and animals, and wildfire resilience, protection of wetland and riparian areas. areas, conservation of special status species, and groundwater recharge.

(5) The project will potential to increase the diversity and abundance of native plants species and decrease the abundance of invasive plant species.

(b)

(c) The board may authorize a block program grantee to use not more than 30 percent of the block grant for all of the following purposes:

(1) To assist the board in the design, outreach, implementation, and monitoring of the program.

(2) To assist landowners or lessees of nonpublic rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands private rangelands in the design and implementation of projects for which grant moneys are awarded pursuant to the block grantee’s local program. projects.

(3) To provide direct technical assistance to landowners or lessees of nonpublic rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands private rangelands to access grant moneys awarded pursuant to the block grantee’s local program. moneys.

(4) To assist landowners or lessees of nonpublic rangelands, grazing lands, and grasslands private rangelands in the preparation of the management plans described in subdivision (b) of Section 12521. plans.

(5) To contract for technical assistance providers to assist landowners or lessees to prepare, implement, and monitor management plans.

12521.

Before entering into a formal project agreement as part of a local program, each landowner or lessee applying for a grant shall provide to the block grantee administering, planning, and implementing the local program all of the following:

(a)The designation of the landowner of record and any lessee, and the legal description and the assessor’s parcel number, of the nonpublic rangeland, grazing land, or grassland upon which the project would be implemented.

(b)An agreement by the landowner and any lessee to restore, enhance, and protect the rangeland, grazing land, or grassland habitat character of the land upon which the project would be implemented in accordance with a management plan that is adopted by an agency or entity and that is approved by the board. In the absence of a management plan at the time of the grant application or award, the landowner or any lessee shall work with the block grantee and the board to create a management plan as part of the agreement.

(c)Specification of the amount of and date in each year that project grant moneys would be conveyed by the block grantee through the local program to the landowner or lessee of the nonpublic rangeland, grazing land, or grassland. Individual project or similar project-type grant amounts shall be calculated at the rate that the board agrees to be fair and reasonable in consideration of the obligations undertaken by the block grantee and the landowner or lessee.

(d)A legally binding agreement that the block grantee and the landowner or lessee awarded grant moneys do both of the following:

(1)Refund to the state all moneys received under the project grant plus interest at the legal rate, as specified in Section 3289 of the Civil Code, upon the landowner’s or lessee’s violation of the project grant or the requirements of this division, including the approved management plan, if the board determines that the violation warrants termination of the project grant and the board terminates the project grant.

(2)Make refunds or accept payment adjustments that the board determines are appropriate, not to exceed the total amount paid by the state to the block grantee and the landowner or lessee in the preceding calendar year plus interest at the legal rate, as specified in Section 3289 of the Civil Code, if the board determines that the violation does not warrant termination of the project grant.

(e)A legally binding agreement that the block grantee and the landowner or lessee receiving project grant moneys will notify the board if it is otherwise compensated by any other source or entity for its actions undertaken as part of a grant awarded pursuant to this division. The board may reduce the amount of a block grant by the amount that the block grantee was otherwise compensated. A block grantee may reduce the amount of a project grant by the amount that the landowner or lessee was otherwise compensated. It is the intent of the Legislature that this subdivision not be implemented in a manner that will reduce the amount of a grant as a result of the block grantee or landowner or lessee securing additional moneys necessary to complete the conservation ranching practice for which the grant was awarded.

(f)An authorization for the board to monitor compliance with the block grant with the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, a county agricultural commissioner, or other appropriate agency, entity, or person to monitor compliance with the block grant, and a requirement that the landowner or lessee of the nonpublic rangeland, grazing land, or grassland allow access for the monitoring.

(g)Any additional requirements that the board determines are desirable to effectuate the purposes of the program or to facilitate its administration.

12522.

If during the project period the landowner or lessee is divested of the use of the nonpublic rangeland, grazing land, or grassland habitat subject to the project, the landowner or lessee of the nonpublic rangeland, grazing land, or grassland shall notify the board and block grantee concurrent with that divestment. Any unearned payment shall immediately be refunded by the landowner or lessee to the block grantee and future payments under the project shall be void.

12523.

The board and the block grantee may mutually agree to modify the terms and conditions of a block grant as the board may determine to be desirable to carry out the purposes of, or to facilitate administration of, the program.

12521.

 At a minimum, each application for a project shall contain all of the following:

(a) The designation of the landowner of record and any lessee, and the legal description and the assessor’s parcel number of the subject property.

(b) A proposed management plan that would meet the objectives of the program. In the absence of a management plan at the time of the project application or award, the landowner or any lessee shall agree to cooperate with the program grantee and the board to create a management plan as part of the grant agreement.

(c) Any additional requirements that the board determines are desirable to effectuate the objectives of the program.

CHAPTER  4. Monitoring and Reporting

12530.

 (a) On or before April 1 of each year and until an applicable final project report is submitted pursuant to subdivision (d), a date determined by the board in the grant agreement, a block program grantee shall submit to the board a an annual report describing and evaluating the implementation of a project funded pursuant to this division and the use of the block grant moneys for the project during the previous year.

(b) The report shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(1) A description of activities taken to meet the objectives of the grant.

(1)

(2) The number of acres impacted by the project.

(2)

(3) The aggregate number of acres receiving cobenefits benefits from the project.

(3)

(4) The public benefits provided by the project. project, including benefits to native species, or other natural resource concerns such as climate resilience, stewardship of healthy soils, wildfire resilience, protection of wetland and riparian areas, conservation of special status species, and groundwater recharge.

(4)The aggregate cost of awarding block grant moneys for the project, including a breakdown of payments made.

(5) A budget and accounting of expenditures of grant funds, including disbursements from the program grant.

(c) The board may require additional monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The board may authorize additional grant funds to be used for monitoring and to assess a project’s performance in meeting the objectives of this division. Metrics for project performance may include, but are not limited to, changes in the abundance or species richness of native species, increased soil health, carbon sequestration, enhanced water quality, or increased resilience to the impacts of climate change.

(c)

(d) If a block program grantee is awarded block grant moneys pursuant to this division for multiple projects, it shall submit a separate report for each project pursuant to this section.

(d)Upon the expenditure of all of the block grant moneys awarded for a project, the block

(e) As required by the board in the grant agreement, the program grantee shall submit to the board a final project report consistent with the requirements of this section.