Today's Law As Amended


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AB-64 Beaver restoration.(2023-2024)



As Amends the Law Today


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 floodplains, 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, 30x30 protections, 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, 2025, 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) 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.
4031.
 (a) Under the program developed pursuant to Section 4030, the department shall allow the release of the beaver onto public or private lands. For beaver released onto public lands, the department or beaver restoration program partners shall notify potentially affected, adjacent landowners in writing prior to the release of the beaver onto public lands.
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, the department may partner with beaver restoration program partners for the purposes of providing required training and capturing, handling, or releasing the beaver onto public lands. The department shall develop reporting requirements for the purposes of this subdivision that are applicable to all beaver restoration program partners except federal agencies and federally recognized tribes.
(c) The department may identify a nuisance beaver or areas with a thriving beaver population as a source population for capturing and relocating the beaver onto public lands.
(d) (1) If a beaver that is released onto public lands pursuant to this section migrates naturally onto private property, the private landowner of the property where the beaver now resides may request that the department relocate the beaver. The department shall determine whether relocation is necessary and feasible in a timely manner.
(2) If a beaver that is released onto public lands pursuant to this section migrates naturally onto private property, the department may enter into an agreement with the landowner pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 4032.
4032.
 (a) The department shall only allow the release of the beaver onto private lands with a written agreement from the landowner.
(b) (1) If, for the purpose of preventing damage to private or public lands, structures, or other improvements of value, a landowner needs to remove, breach, or modify a beaver dam that is utilized by the beaver relocated pursuant to subdivision (a) and that is located on the landowner’s property, the landowner shall submit a request for alteration to the department at least 72 hours prior to altering the dam.
(2) (A) If the department finds that the beaver dam poses no risk to private or public lands, structures, or other improvements of value, or is found to be providing critical habitat for any listed species pursuant to the California Endangered Species Act (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 2050) of Division 3), then the request for alteration may be denied. The department shall provide to the landowner, in writing and in a timely manner, the reasons why the department denied that landowner’s request for alteration.
(B) If the request for alteration is approved, the landowner shall be responsible for monitoring upstream and downstream of the altered beaver dam on their property for stranded fish in isolated pools. The department shall provide guidance to the landowner regarding monitoring requirements. The landowner shall make a good faith effort to capture and safely move all stranded or isolated fish to the nearest free-flowing water.
(c) (1) The department may allow the release of the beaver onto lands held by federally recognized tribes or nonfederally recognized California Native American tribes included on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission with a written agreement from the tribal government. The agreement shall contain a provision stating that the tribal nation may remove, breach, or modify a beaver dam that is utilized by the beaver relocated pursuant to this subdivision and that is located within the tribe’s borders only after notifying the department 48 hours prior to the alteration of the dam.
(2) In the event that the department desires to access the lands of federally recognized tribes or nonfederally recognized California Native American tribes included on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission to relocate or inspect a beaver, permission shall be obtained from the tribal government prior to entering the tribal lands.
4033.
 (a) The department shall develop criteria to guide the release of beaver pursuant to this article. The criteria may include, but are not limited to, both of the following:
(1) There is a low probability of the released beaver becoming a nuisance or causing damage.
(2) Conditions exist for the released beaver to improve, maintain, or manage stream or riparian ecosystem functions.
(b) The department may consider the following factors when relocating the beaver pursuant to this article:
(1) Stream gradient.
(2) Sufficiency of the water supply.
(3) Stream geomorphology.
(4) Adequacy of a food source.
(5) Proper site elevation and valley width.
(6) The age of the beaver relocated.
(7) The time of year for capture and relocation.
(8) Requirements for capturing, handling, and transporting live beavers.
(9) The minimum and maximum number of beavers that may be relocated to one area.
(10) Requirements for a person that is party to an agreement pursuant to Section 4032 to initially provide supplemental food and materials to build lodges. The department may request, but shall not require, federally recognized tribes or nonfederally recognized California Native American tribes included on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission to provide supplemental food and materials.
SEC. 3.
 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.