Timber harvest plans: exemption: reducing flammable materials.

The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practices Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, as defined, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from some or all of those provisions of the act a person engaging in specified forest management activities including the cutting or removal of trees in compliance with existing law relating to defensible space that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuel break for a distance of no more than 150 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted structure, as provided. This bill would, until no later than January 1, 2019, also authorize the board to exempt from some or all of those provisions of the act a person engaged in forest management whose activities are limited to the cutting or removal of trees on the person's property in compliance with existing law relating to defensible space that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuel break for a distance of no more than 300 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted habitable structure, as provided. The bill would require the board to adopt regulations to implement the above provisions no later than January 1, 2016. The bill would require the department to evaluate the effects of these provisions and to report its recommendations, no later than January 1, 2019, to the Legislature based on that evaluation.