The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board) has released a rule package that would grant a two-year extension of various emergency forest management exemptions granted last year to expedite the ability of land owners to remove dead, dying, and diseased trees resulting from the drought.
The initial emergency exemptions, approved in July 2015, relaxed a variety of reporting and plan submission requirements in the Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 to help expedite the removal of trees impacted by bark beetle infestations resulting from the state’s recent severe drought conditions.
The proposed extension is one of many actions various State agencies are undertaking to implement the Emergency Proclamation on Tree Mortality issued by Governor Brown in October 2015. The exemptions allow for more expedient removal of diseased trees on both State and private forest lands to mitigate tree mortality impacts on the state’s forests and to protect public safety.
Comments are due by March 28, 2016, and the Board is scheduled to hear the rule package on April 6, 2016. Proposed regulatory language and related documents can be accessed here.