Bill Text: CA AB2196 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Beaver restoration.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2024-09-27 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 705, Statutes of 2024. [AB2196 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB2196-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Senate  August 15, 2024

Amended  IN  Senate  June 04, 2024

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 19, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2196

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Introduced by Assembly Member Connolly

February 07, 2024

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An act to add Article 2 (commencing with Section 4030) to Chapter 2 of Part 3 of Division 4 of the Fish and Game Code, relating to beaver.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2196, as amended, Connolly. Beaver restoration.

Existing law, except as provided, authorizes any owner or tenant of land or property that is being damaged or destroyed or is in danger of being damaged or destroyed by certain animals, including, among others, the beaver, to apply to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for a permit to kill the animals. Under existing law, it is unlawful for any person to trap any fur-bearing mammal for purposes of recreation or commerce in fur. Under existing law, a violation of the Fish and Game Code, or of any rule, regulation, or order made or adopted under that code, is a crime.

This bill would would, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, statutorily establish in the department a program to promote beaver restoration across California, as provided. Because a violation of the program’s requirements would be a crime, the 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.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

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Bill Text

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

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 create habitat for a myriad of species, increase biodiversity, and are integral to the conservation and recovery of many 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 river and stream channels, reconnect flood plains, 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 the objective of bringing 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 efforts include species monitoring, habitat restoration and expansion, translocation, and improving nonlethal management of human-beaver conflict.

(j) California Indian Native American tribes possess traditional knowledge of the ecosystem benefits that beavers provide for California watersheds and wetlands.

(k) Beavers also hold significant cultural value for many California Native American tribes. Beaver restoration in California includes translocation of beavers onto tribal lands to reestablish populations.

(k)

(l) Successful implementation of 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 protections provided by the 30x30 goal, developed pursuant to Executive Order No. N-82-20, 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) There Subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, there shall be in the department a program to promote beaver restoration across California by advising on policies and guidelines relating to beavers, coordinating restoration efforts, integrating methods to avoid or alleviate human-beaver conflict, relocating beavers into watersheds, and consulting with beaver restoration program partners.

(b) As used in this article, “beaver restoration program partners” means local, state, and 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.

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.