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AB-3023 Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force: interagency funding strategy: multiple benefit projects: grant program guidelines.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 09/05/2024 09:00 PM
AB3023:v92#DOCUMENT

Enrolled  September 05, 2024
Passed  IN  Senate  August 30, 2024
Passed  IN  Assembly  August 31, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  August 15, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  June 20, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  May 20, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 16, 2024
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 4773 to the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental protection.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 3023, Papan. Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force: interagency funding strategy: multiple benefit projects: grant program guidelines.
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 task force, or its successor, to develop, in partnership with the agency and its member entities, an interagency funding strategy that promotes integrated, multiple benefit projects that address wildfire, watershed function, biodiversity, and climate adaptation and mitigation, to achieve landscape resilience on fire-prone lands and outcomes more aligned with an ecosystem-based approach, as defined.
The bill would require the agency and other relevant state entities to review and update relevant grant guidelines for certain climate change, biodiversity, conservation, fire, and watershed restoration programs to encourage multiple benefit projects. The bill would also require the programs to review and revise relevant grant guidelines to reinforce the program alignment to integrate conservation action with landscape restoration actions to ensure that landscapes are protected and well managed for climate, biodiversity, water security, and fire resilience. The bill would further require, to the extent feasible, investments in natural and working lands to be guided by California’s Nature-Based Solutions Climate Targets and the Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy.
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 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.
(6) Moving efficiently to meet climate goals demands that state agencies better coordinate and align existing grant programs to facilitate achievement of multiple state mandates related to climate adaptation, carbon storage, biodiversity, forest health, water quality, and economic development.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that:
(1) The state create an interagency funding strategy through the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan to coordinate and align state and federal wildfire, watershed restoration, biodiversity, conservation, and climate mitigation and adaptation efforts to achieve healthy climate and fire-resilient landscapes.
(2) The state review and update grant solicitation processes to improve consistency of information requirements, budget format, and other requirements to reduce inefficiency and promote multiple benefit projects that may apply to multiple grant programs.

SEC. 2.

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

4773.
 (a) In developing the update of the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan required by Section 4771, the task force, or its successor, in partnership with the Natural Resources Agency and its member entities, shall develop an interagency funding strategy that promotes integrated, multiple benefit projects that address wildfire, watershed function, biodiversity, and climate adaptation and mitigation to achieve landscape resilience on fire-prone lands and achieve outcomes more aligned with an ecosystem-based approach. The interagency funding strategy shall do all of the following:
(1) Provide a framework for regional investment strategies in each of the major regions of the state, including the area described in subdivision (a) of Section 71365.
(2) Promote block grants to support regional project portfolios where feasible.
(3) Support coordination and alignment of relevant state, federal, utility, and other programs that protect and restore fire-prone lands, including, but not limited to, programs administered by the department, the Department of Conservation, the Wildlife Conservation Board, the Department of Water Resources, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the state’s conservancies.
(4) Advance implementation of the carbon sequestration and nature-based solution targets described in subdivision (b) of Section 38561.5 of the Health and Safety Code and emphasize the benefit of developing and maintaining desired landscape conditions through durable commitments to climate resilient management.
(b) (1) To reduce inefficiencies and redundant processes, the Natural Resources Agency and other relevant state entities shall review and update relevant grant guidelines for climate change, biodiversity, conservation, fire, and watershed restoration programs to encourage multiple benefit projects. If feasible and appropriate, similar grant programs may develop a shared, consolidated application process. Elements of guidelines to review include, but are not limited to, the following:
(A) Aligning the timing, requirements, and application process of grant solicitations, to the extent feasible and consistent with program requirements.
(B) Encouraging multiple benefit, enduring projects.
(C) Opportunities to simplify and streamline the grant experience for the applicant.
(D) Opportunities to develop a common application for the organizational, governance, legal, and financial elements of the grant submission.
(2) The programs described in paragraph (1) shall review and revise relevant grant guidelines to reinforce the program alignment required pursuant to subdivision (a) to integrate conservation action with landscape restoration actions to ensure that landscapes are protected and well managed for climate, biodiversity, water security, and fire resilience.
(c) The review required pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) applies only to grant programs that receive funding through the Budget Act of 2024, or a general obligation bond.
(d) To the extent feasible, investments in natural and working lands shall be guided by California’s Nature-Based Solutions Climate Targets and the Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy.
(e) As used in this section, “an ecosystem-based approach” means a science-based approach to the integrated management of natural resources that aims to restore and sustain the health, resilience, and diversity of ecosystems, while also allowing for sustainable use by humans.