Grazing land: California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program.

The Wildlife Conservation Law of 1947 establishes the Wildlife Conservation Board in the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Existing law requires the board to investigate, study, and determine the areas in the state that are most suitable for certain wildlife-related purposes. Existing law establishes the California Farmland Conservancy Program Act, to be administered generally by the Department of Conservation, and provides that it is the intent of the act to, among other things, encourage voluntary, long-term private stewardship of agricultural lands by offering landowners financial incentives, encourage local land use planning for orderly and efficient urban growth and conservation of agricultural land, and encourage improvements to enhance long-term sustainable agricultural uses. This bill would, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, establish the California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program. The bill would require the board to administer the program to award grants to eligible entities, as defined, to administer, plan, and implement local programs to enhance or restore California's private rangelands, as specified. The bill would require the board to develop program grant guidelines and would require the board and any program grantee, in evaluating proposed projects, to consider specified selection criteria. The bill would permit the board to authorize a program grantee to use not more than 30% of the grant moneys for specified administrative and outreach purposes relating to the program. The bill would require each program grantee, on or before a date determined by the board in the grant agreement, to submit to the board an annual report describing and evaluating the implementation of the project and the use of the grant moneys for the project during the previous year, as specified.