This week, Governor Brown signed RCRC-supported Assembly Bill 1867 by Assembly Member Jim Patterson, which will allow landowners to sell timber harvested during defensible space clearing projects without filing a Timber Harvesting Plan (THP).  Current law already allows for clearing up to 150 feet around a permitted structure, and this measure extends the 150 foot defensible space exemption to 300 feet around a permitted habitable structure, and allows for some of the costs of that work to be mitigated by allowing that timber to be sold without a THP.  The approval of AB 1867 marks a further easing of the THP rules as it follows on the heels of AB 2142 by Assembly Member Wesley Chesbro, which the Governor signed two weeks ago.  AB 2142 broadens the exemption of the extant Forest Fire Protection Act.