Resources: watersheds.

The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, among other things, prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and unless the plan has been approved. Existing law requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt certain forest practice rules and regulations to minimize the effects of erosion on water resources and lakes. This bill would require the department and the board, when implementing a pilot project to protect and restore the riparian zone in watersheds with listed anadromous salmonids, among other things, to provide the industry, agencies, and the public with the opportunity to participate in the development of the pilot project in a transparent manner and to ensure that the pilot project has certain goals. The bill would also require certain documents to be publicly available on the board's Internet Web Site and all documents that form the basis for the pilot projects to be posted on the department's Internet Web site. The bill would require the board, with the assistance of a technical advisory committee, to develop recommendations and pass regulations for providing electronic public access to all relevant documents, organized by the California Interagency Watershed Mapping Committee, that assist the department in administering timber harvest regulations with actions that protect and recover forest and watershed productivity and quality.