Forest resources: management.

(1) The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted for the timber operations to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and approved. The act requires a person who owns timberlands that are to be devoted to uses other than the growing of timber to file an application for conversion with the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. The California Forest Legacy Program Act of 2007 establishes the California Forest Legacy Program to conserve private forest lands by authorizing the department to acquire conservation easements of eligible properties according to specified criteria. This bill would require the department, in order to further the goals of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and to enhance the capability of forest lands to sequester carbon, to develop options and incentives for the management of private forests pursuant to the criteria established under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, to establish, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, scientific standardized baselines at the regional and state scales to project future scenarios of carbon emissions and sequestration, and to develop, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board and the Department of Fish and Game, regulations that establish mitigation requirements for forest land conversions. The bill would require the department to impose a fee on an applicant for conversion that fully offsets the department's costs for implementing the above requirement as it relates to conversion. (2) Existing law, the Forest and Rangeland Resources Assessment and Policy Act of 1977, requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection, under policy guidance from the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and in consultation with the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, to prepare and submit a full and updated forest and rangeland resource assessment and analysis by January 1, 1987, and by January 1 of each 5th year thereafter. The board is required to prepare a forest resource policy statement based on the review and assessment. This bill would require that the review and assessment include continued publication of trendline data on carbon stocks, at multiple geographic scales, on the state's forest lands. The bill would require the director to collaborate with the State Air Resources Board for the development and maintenance of the trendline data for the purposes of demonstrating consistency with the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 for the forest sector and to identify the best available data sources and outstanding data needs necessary to develop and maintain the trendline data.