Protected species: accidental take: agricultural activities.

The California Endangered Species Act, until January 1, 2011, exempts from its provisions the accidental take of candidate, threatened, or endangered species resulting from acts that occur on a farm or a ranch in the course of otherwise lawful routine and ongoing agricultural activities. The act requires the department, in cooperation with the Department of Food and Agriculture and other specified entities, to adopt regulations that authorize locally designed voluntary programs for routine and ongoing agricultural activities on farms or ranches that encourage habitat for candidate, threatened, and endangered species, and wildlife generally. The act authorizes specified entities to propose those programs to the department. This bill would extend that repeal date to January 1, 2014. The bill would authorize the department to approve applications submitted by nonprofit organizations to initiate and undertake public education and outreach activities that promote the achievement of the objectives of the act. The bill would require a participating organization to file an annual report with the department with specified information.