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AB-2639 Forestry: timber operations: maintenance of timberlands for fuels reduction.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 04/11/2024 09:00 PM
AB2639:v97#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  April 11, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 18, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2639

Introduced by Assembly Member Joe Patterson

February 14, 2024

An act to amend Sections 4527 and 4581 of the Public Resources Code, relating to forestry.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2639, as amended, Joe Patterson. Forestry: timber operations: maintenance of timberlands for fuels reduction.
The Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law defines “timber operations” for purposes of the act. The act provides that any person who willfully violates any provision of the act or rule or regulation of the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is guilty of a misdemeanor.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.
This bill would expand the definition of “timber operations” to include the maintenance of timberlands for fuels reduction, through fuels reduction paid in part or in whole with public funds. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that timber operations for the maintenance of timberland, paid in part or in whole with public funds, may may, as an alternative to obtaining an approved timber harvesting plan, comply with the requirements of CEQA in lieu of preparing a timber harvesting plan. CEQA.
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.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

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


SECTION 1.

 Section 4527 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

4527.
 (a) (1) “Timber operations” means the cutting or removal, or both, of timber or other solid wood forest products, including Christmas trees, from timberlands for commercial purposes, or the noncommercial maintenance of timberlands for fuels reduction, through fuels reduction paid in part or in whole with public funds, together with all the incidental work, including, but not limited to, construction and maintenance of roads, fuelbreaks, firebreaks, stream crossings, landings, skid trails, and beds for the falling of trees, fire hazard abatement, and site preparation that involves disturbance of soil or burning of vegetation, slash, or woody debris following timber harvesting activities or maintenance of timberland, harvesting, but excluding preparatory work such as treemarking, surveying, or roadflagging.
(2) “Commercial purposes” includes (A) the cutting or removal of trees that are processed into logs, lumber, or other wood products and offered for sale, barter, exchange, or trade, or (B) the cutting or removal of trees or other forest products during the conversion of timberlands to land uses other than the growing of timber that are subject to Section 4621, including, but not limited to, residential or commercial developments, production of other agricultural crops, recreational developments, ski developments, water development projects, and transportation projects.
(b) For purposes of this section, the removal of trees less than 16 inches in diameter at breast height from a firebreak or fuelbreak does not constitute “timber operations” if the removal meets all of the following criteria:
(1) It is located within 500 feet of the boundary of an urban wildland interface community at high risk of wildfire, as defined in pages 751 to 776, inclusive, of Volume 66 of the Federal Register (66 FR 751-02), as that definition may be amended from time to time. For purposes of this paragraph, “urban wildland interface community at high risk of wildfire” means an area having one or more structures for every five acres.
(2) It is part of a community wildfire protection plan approved by the department or part of a department fire plan.
(3) The trees to be removed will not be processed into logs or lumber, unless the work is being conducted by, or in partnership with, a public agency or a nonprofit organization that has received a grant from the department for vegetation management or fuel reduction, in which case the logs or lumber may be sold.
(4) The work to be conducted is under a firebreak or fuelbreak project that has been subject to a project-based review pursuant to a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or environmental impact report in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000)). For projects to be conducted on forested landscapes, as defined in Section 754, the project and the project-based review shall be prepared by or in consultation with a registered professional forester.
(5) The removal of surface and ladder fuels is consistent with former paragraph (9) of subdivision (j) of Section 4584, as that section read on December 31, 2018.

SEC. 2.

 Section 4581 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

4581.
 No person shall conduct timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted for those operations to the department pursuant to this article. The plan shall be required in addition to the license required in Section 4571. Timber operations for the maintenance of timberland, paid in part or in while whole with public funds, may may, as an alternative to obtaining an approved timber harvesting plan pursuant to this section, comply with Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) in lieu of preparing a timber harvesting plan. 21000).

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.