California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: prescribed fire, thinning, and fuel reduction projects.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. Existing law, until January 1, 2023, exempts from the requirements of CEQA prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as provided. Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, beginning December 31, 2019, and annually thereafter until January 1, 2023, to report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature the number of times the exemption was used. This bill would extend the exemption from CEQA to January 1, 2026. The bill would additionally require that a project's significant impacts identified in an environmental impact statement prepared pursuant to the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 are avoided or mitigated in order for the exemption to apply. The bill would require the lead agency, if it determines that the exemption applies and determines to approve or carry the project, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk of the county in which the project is located. If the lead agency is not the department, the bill would require the lead agency to file a notice with the department containing specified information about the project. If the lead agency is the department, the bill would require the department to maintain records containing that specified information. The bill would delete the requirement for the annual report and would instead require the department, on or before January 1, 2025, to submit a report to the Legislature containing information received or maintained by the department about the exempt projects. By extending the obligation of a lead agency to determine the applicability of the exemption and imposing additional duties on a lead agency, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.