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March 2006
California Oak Report
Unnecessary Panic
There has been misunderstanding among biologists, botanists, ecologists and other disciplines regarding the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection's recent application of the Professional Foresters Law (PFL) to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) oak woodland reviews. Facts:
1. Other than CEQA oak woodland inventories, all other disciplines will continue to do what they have done in the past. Just as a biologist or botanist can't perform forestry tasks, a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) can't prepare CEQA flora or fauna analyses. Non RPFs can also include any oak comments they wish in their reports and the RPF must consider those findings.
Technically, the RPF doesn't actually have to perform any of the work in a CEQA oak woodlands assessment. The RPF is responsible for signing-off on the oak habitat analyses, including oak inventories, determination of significant impacts and development of feasible and proportional mitigation measures.
2. The PFL states that an RPF must be "qualified" to perform in a particular area of forestry and if an RPF is out of his/her depth they need to get assistance from other disciplines.
3. RPFs professional conduct, unlike current CEQA practitioners, is subject to review by an examining committee or directly by the Board of Forestry upon the filing of a valid complaint. COF will be monitoring the performance of RPFs on oak woodland assessments.
Concerned citizens and organizations are encouraged to file grievances if environmental work is inadequate to the situation. The more scrutiny that comes together on these important matters, the more likely it is that future generations will be able to see and benefit from healthy oak woodlands and forests.
Can't See The Forest For The Trees
California cities and counties continue to make three critical errors in mitigating significant oak woodland impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA):
1. CEQA doesn't speak to how local governments regulate their oak trees; CEQA is only concerned with how localities manage the aggregation of oak trees, a. k. a. oak woodlands. Invariably, mitigated negative declarations and environmental impact reports evaluate oak woodlands, then turn around and attempt to mitigate significant oak habitat impacts with tree ordinances. It doesn't work. Oak habitat impacts require oak habitat mitigation.
2. If a project has a significant oak woodlands impact, it is not sufficient mitigation to say you won't add to it by setting aside an onsite oak tree preserve. Significant oak habitat impacts are not offset by the project applicant sparing the remaining oak woodlands. A project must compensate for its oak habitat impacts by replacing or providing substitute oak woodland resources or environments.
3. That an environmental impact report deems project oak woodland impacts unavoidable does not relieve the project applicant from the CEQA responsibility to provide feasible and proportional oak habitat mitigation.
Strength Through Diversity
Oak woodland conservation efforts in the 21st century will benefit greatly from codification of oak preservation provisions. These include the California Environmental Quality Act, Public Resources Code §750 et seq. and Public Resources Code §21083.4.
Augmenting the regulatory statutes are Fish and Game Code §1360 et seq. which established the state Oak Woodland Conservation Fund, the broad legal authority of the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy potential for perpetuating Sierra foothill oak woodlands. This statutory variety enhances statewide oak woodland conservation in order to ensure sustainable wildlife habitat and healthy watersheds.
California Oak Woodland Policies and Laws
There are three state laws governing oak woodlands: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Professional Foresters Law (PFL) and Public Resources Code §21083.4 (PRC), county mitigation. They work individually and in unison for the conservation of California's biologically diverse natural resource:
Q. Which local jurisdictions are affected by state oak woodland laws?
A. The PFL and CEQA apply to all local jurisdictions, the PRC applies only to counties. The PFL addresses oak habitat evaluation; CEQA requires "feasible" and "proportional" oak habitat mitigation; the PRC describes the means for counties to obtain feasible and proportional oak habitat mitigation.
Q. What is the definition of "oak woodlands?"
A. "The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has generally interpreted the term significant stand of [oak] tree species to mean those stands with a canopy cover of 10% or greater" (1/9/06). The Board has regulatory authority over all of California's forested landscapes, including the power to regulate oak woodlands at the local or state level.
The Board's definition means that when a local jurisdiction is determining in a CEQA Initial Study if a project will have potentially significant impacts on oak woodlands, this question must be answered: Does the site contain 10 percent or more native oak canopy cover? If the answer is no, then oak woodlands are not at issue; if the site does contain 10 percent or more oak canopy, then a RPF must be consulted to determine if the project will significantly impact oak woodlands.
Q. What is the role of the Register Professional Forester (RPF)?
A. In addition to quantifying oak woodland impacts, RPF mitigated negative declaration and environmental impact report responsibilities include collecting inventory data and supervising the development of feasible and proportional oak habitat mitigation measures.
Q. What state policies guide RPFs for CEQA oak woodland reviews?
A. The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection-Fish and Game Commission Joint Policy on Hardwoods establishes publications by the University of California, California Department of Fish and Game and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as the principal oak woodlands reference source for RPFs. Important joint agency publications include A Planner's Guide to Oak Woodlands, 2nd Edition and Guidelines for Managing California's Hardwood Rangelands, particularly Appendix A.
Q. What determines if oak woodland impacts are significant?
A. Significance is determined by how many oaks will be removed, how many acres of oak woodlands will be impacted, the diameter of the individual trees removed or their collective average canopy cover per acre and proximity to other habitat elements.
Q. What is the key feature of PRC county oak woodlands mitigation?
A. PRC stipulates that the planting of oaks shall not fulfill more than 50 percent of the required mitigation. Therefore, the planting of oaks must always be accompanied by one of the three other mitigation alternatives in order to be deemed complete.
Good News . . . State Purchases Outstanding Engelmann Oak Woodlands
A nearly three-year-old effort to make California the full steward of the popular Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve in Riverside County has been completed. In the transaction, The Nature Conservancy turned over ownership and management of its nearly 4,050 acres in reserve land and easements to the state Department of Fish and Game. The funds for the purchase came from state bond acts that were approved by voters in 2000 and 2002.
According to the state's report, the reserve is home to more than 450 native plant species, including a 1,500-acre tract of oak woodlands that contain the last remaining naturally-producing Engelmann oak groves in Southern California. Of the more than 235 animal species counted there, more than 40 are considered endangered, threatened or of special concern. Large mammals known to frequent the reserve include mountain lions and badgers.
The Nature Conservancy, Riverside County, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, developers and companies together spent more than $40 million over a 20-year period to cobble together the reserve and create a corridor to the nearby Cleveland National Forest. Many of the land purchases were sparked by a developer's plans in the early 1990s to build a golf course and housing tracts on much of the plateau.
COF congratulates everyone who worked on this important project.
Opportunity for Oak Woodlands Forest Funding (please write)
March 6, 2006
Mr. Michael Peevey, President
California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, Ca 94102
Dear President Peevey,
Enclosed is a copy of Oaks of California for you to place in the Commission's library.
I write today to support Pacific Gas & Electric's proposal to establish a Climate Protection Tariff for rate payers. This proposed program offers a tangible way for California consumers to help reduce global warming by protecting California's oak woodlands and forested lands.
The public benefits of protecting the state's forests are numerous: Sustainable wildlife habitat, healthy watersheds, soils stabilization, flood control, clean air and sufficient water for a fast-growing citizenry. Reducing global warming is on every thinking person's mind.
PG&E's CPT program engages consumers to voluntarily contribute to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By investing in the Climate Action Registry's forest-based greenhouse gas emission reduction projects, CPT can educate energy users about climate change and promote consumer behaviors that would satisfactorily address detrimental impacts.
Thank you for your leadership in introducing this innovative PG&E program. CPT would offer Californians a chance to fight global warming while protecting oak woodlands/forests and other forested landscapes and reaping the broad range of public benefits of doing so.
Sincerely,
Janet Santos Cobb
President
Merchandise
Native Oaks of California poster -- Designed by Good Nature Publishing, the "botanically correct" renderings are bordered by drawings of each species' leaf and acorn. Also shows locator maps. Full-color; 36" x 24". $15.99, Members $14.39
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