Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973: working forest management plans: harvest area.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on how much land can be included in a working forest management plan's harvest area.

Forest Management Plans: Harvest Area

The bill removes the requirement that working forest management plans' harvest areas must be within one hydrological area and exempts certain fire projects from environmental review.

What This Bill Does

• Removes the requirement that a working forest management plan's harvest area must be within one hydrological area.
• Exempts prescribed fires, thinning, and fuel reduction projects in communities with only one way in and out during evacuations from needing an environmental impact report under CEQA.

Who It Names or Affects

• Forestry companies that manage nonindustrial timberlands
• Local government agencies responsible for environmental reviews

Terms To Know

Hydrological area

A specific region where water flows into the same body of water.

CEQA

California Environmental Quality Act, which requires environmental reviews for projects that might harm the environment.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much land can be included in a working forest management plan's harvest area.
• It is unclear what specific requirements must be met by fire projects to qualify for exemption from CEQA.

Official Summary Text

AB 442, as amended, Hadwick.
California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: prescribed fire, thinning, and fuel reduction projects.
Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973: working forest management plans: harvest area.
Under the Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, the Legislature finds and declares the policy of the state to encourage prudent and responsible forest management of nonindustrial timberlands by approving working forest management plans in advance. Existing law requires the harvest area of a working forest management plan to be contained within a single hydrological area, as defined.
This bill would delete the requirement that the harvest area of a working forest management plan be contained within a single hydrological area.
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.
CEQA exempts from its requirements prescribed fire, reforestation, habitat restoration, thinning, or fuel reduction projects, and certain related activities, undertaken in whole or in part on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire, if those projects and activities meet certain requirements.
This bill would exempt from CEQA prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken within a community with a single ingress and
egress evacuation route.
Because the bill would require the lead agency to determine whether the exemption is applicable to a project, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
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.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF