Wildlife: bears.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary does not provide specific details on when the roadmap will be completed or submitted to relevant committees.

Wildlife: Bears

This law changes how grizzly bears are treated in wildlife management laws by excluding them from existing hunting and trapping rules for other bear species, and requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife to create a plan for reintroducing grizzly bears into California.

What This Bill Does

• Excludes grizzly bears from existing hunting and trapping rules that apply to other bear species.
• Requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop and make publicly available a roadmap for the reintroduction of grizzly bears in California, including scientific assessments and consultations with Native American tribes.

Who It Names or Affects

• People who hunt or trap bears in California
• The Department of Fish and Wildlife

Terms To Know

Roadmap

A plan that shows steps to reintroduce grizzly bears into California.

Self-sustaining population

A group of animals that can live and grow without needing help from humans.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify when exactly the roadmap will be completed or when grizzly bears might return to California.
• It is unclear how much it will cost to create the roadmap and reintroduce grizzly bears.
• The bill does not address what happens if communities do not want grizzly bears back.

Official Summary Text

SB 1305, as amended, Richardson.
Wildlife: bears.
Existing law classifies “black and brown or cinnamon bears (genus Euarctos)” as a game mammal for purposes of managing, taking, or hunting that species. Existing law makes it unlawful to take a bear using a firearm, trap, or bow and arrow without first procuring a tag authorizing the taking. Existing law also makes it unlawful for a person to take a bear with an iron or steel-jawed or any type of metal-jawed traps. In any part of a district within the Counties of San Bernardino and Riverside, existing law authorizes the taking of bears at any time with traps within a good and substantial fence surrounding beehives, as specified.
This bill would exclude
grizzly bear from the application of the above-described provisions.
Existing law establishes the Department of Fish and Wildlife in the Natural Resources Agency. Under existing law, the department has jurisdiction over the conservation, protection, and management of fish, wildlife, native plants, and habitat necessary for biologically sustainable populations of those species.
This bill would require the department to develop and make publicly available a roadmap
for the reintroduction of grizzly bears in California and would require the roadmap be developed consistent with, and include, among other things, a scientific assessment based on the best available data, as specified, and a consultation with California Native American tribes, as specified.
that evaluates whether, and under what conditions, reintroduction of the grizzly bear is feasible and advisable, and the extent to which the ecological functions once provided by the grizzly bear may be restored through human-mediated landscape restoration, including through reintroduction of the species.
The bill would also require the department, by June 30,
2028,
2030,
to submit the roadmap document to relevant budget and policy committees of the Legislature, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, and the Fish and Game Commission. The bill would prohibit reintroduction of the grizzly bear in the state until the department or others have carried out various actions, including, among other things,
a scientific determination regarding the biological and ecological viability of establishing a self-sustaining grizzly population in the state,
completion of the roadmap, determinations, based on the best available science, that establishment of a self-sustaining grizzly population in the state is biologically viable,
and a consultation with California Native American tribes and engagement with communities, as specified.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF