Timber harvesting plans: exemptions.

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 to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from those provisions of the act a person engaging in specified forest management activities. Existing law, for a specified 3-year period, authorizes an exemption, known as the Forest Fire Prevention Pilot Project Exemption, if certain conditions are met, including, among others, that the activities conducted pursuant to the exemption occur in the Sierra Nevada Region, as defined, in the County of Modoc, Siskiyou, or Trinity, or in any combination of these areas. This bill would expand the Forest Fire Prevention Pilot Project Exemption to include activities conducted within the County of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, or Sonoma. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.