Forests Forever Alerts June 23, 2010

Senate committee says 'aye' on AB 1504

Votes on AB 2575 and AB 2163 pushed to June 29

Assemblymember Nancy Skinner’s (D-Berkeley) “Carbon Sink Act,” A.B. 1504, cleared the California Senate’s Committee on Natural Resources and Water on a vote of 5-3 on Tuesday, June 22.

Skinner’s bill would, for the first time, declare that forest-management goals of California should include the sequestration of carbon dioxide, and would require the California Dept. of Forestry (CDF), in consultation with the state Air Resources Board, to determine to what extent existing forestry regulations and programs are meeting California’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.

Your calls and emails to key committee members urging YES votes made a big difference on Tuesday, helping to spur passage of a worthy piece of legislation.

Meanwhile two other measures that had been scheduled for a vote this week – Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro’s (D-North Coast) watersheds-focused A.B. 2575, and Assemblymember Tony Mendoza’s (D-Norwalk) unfortunate timber give-away A.B. 2163 – have been rescheduled for a vote at the committee’s next hearing on June 29.

Present for Tuesday’s vote was Forests Forever Legislative Advocate Luke Breit, who said the win margin would have been stronger in favor of A.B. 1504 but for the absence of Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), who likely would have voted in favor of the measure. The bill also picked up a vote from Sen. Alex Padilla (D-San Fernando Valley), who had been only lukewarm on the matter but ended up giving it his backing.

From here A.B. 1504 moves on to the Senate’s Environmental Quality Committee, chaired by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), likely within the next week.

California’s forests serve as a first-line defense against CO2 pollution and climate change. Skinner and Forests Forever want to recognize and codify that value so that forests are managed in a way that enhances their capacity to keep the air clean.

“We need to ensure that the CDF accurately monitors and assesses carbon sequestration scenarios,” said Forest Forever Legislative Advocate Luke Breit. “Otherwise we might even make a bad situation worse instead of better. We think A.B. 1504 will help achieve that goal.”

Forests Forever is a sponsor of both A.B. 1504 and A.B. 2575. These measures offer significant advances in forest protection and watershed restoration.

Your further calls in support of Chesbro’s A.B. 2575 before Tuesday, June 29 could make an important difference in forest management.
But the bad timber-industry bill is also poised to score a win – unless we can block its path.

On June 29 the natural resources committee will be voting on Mendoza’s A.B. 2163. As a follow-up to last year’s passage of Mendoza’s A.B. 1066, A.B. 2163 offers an overbroad and one-sided approach to lengthening the active period of certain timber harvest plans (THPs) from three to five years.

Please urge a NO vote on A.B. 2163!

BACKGROUND:

As those who have been following its progress through the legislative process are well aware, Chesbro’s A.B. 2575 – the Forests Forever-sponsored “Comprehensive Forest Land Recovery and Restoration Act” – focuses on two proposed pilot projects to be conducted by the CDF to demonstrate sound techniques for assessing the effects of logging operations on soil, air, water, wildlife and climate, and to protect and repair salmon and steelhead habitat.

The cumulative impacts over time of multiple development projects in close proximity are widely acknowledged to be devastating watershed quality as well as critically endangered wildlife such as salmon.
A.B. 2575 will begin the healing process by taking into account all of these impacts, creating a consistent, over-arching approach to protecting and restoring watersheds.

TAKE ACTION:

Contact Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro 916-319-2001 and congratulate him on the success so far of A.B. 2575. Let him know you support his effort to focus legislation on the cumulative impacts of multiple logging projects in fragile watersheds.

Contact Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) at 916-319-2014 and thank her for authoring A.B. 1504, the “Carbon Sink Act,” and advancing it to the Senate.

Contact senators on the Committee on Natural Resources and Water and thank them for voting in favor of A.B. 1504. Urge them to cast another another YES vote when A.B. 2575 come before them on June 29.

Also ask senators to vote NO on A.B. 2163, an unnecessary extension of THP timeframes.