AB 2277 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

California State Park Stewardship Act of 2026.

Summary

Existing law designates all parks, public campgrounds, monument sites, landmark sites, and sites of historical interest established or acquired by the state, or that are under its control, as the state park system, except as specified. Under existing law, the Department of Parks and Recreation controls the state park system, which is made up of units. This bill would establish the California State Park Stewardship Act of 2026. The bill would require the department to conduct projects and programs addressing and mitigating climate change impacts in the state park system through stewardship, as provided. The bill would establish the Wildfire Safety and Climate Stewardship Fund, to be administered by the department, to support climate stewardship activities in the state park system, and would authorize the department to enter into an agreement with specified entities to accept funding for these purposes, as provided.

Issues: ✓ Environment

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 19, 2026 Last action May 14, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

03/09/26 - Amended Assembly → 04/16/26 - Amended Assembly · 5 edits · Apr 16, 2026

MODERATE

AB 2277 had its historical resources component entirely removed, stripping out the provision that would have amended Section 5024.1 of the Public Resources Code to allow listing in the California Register of properties removed from the National Register of Historic Places after January 20, 2025. The bill is now solely focused on the California State Park Stewardship Act of 2026, with expanded definitions and a broader scope for the Wildfire Safety and Climate Stewardship Fund. A coauthor (Assembly Member Caloza) was also added.

Scope change

The bill's scope narrowed by removing the historical resources/California Register component entirely, and simultaneously broadened within its remaining state park focus by expanding definitions to cover all land types and the entire state park system rather than just individual units.

SCOPE

The entire Section 1 amending Public Resources Code Section 5024.1 (California Register of Historical Resources) was deleted. This removed the provision that would have allowed a resource to be listed in the California Register if it had been on the National Register of Historic Places on or after January 20, 2025 and was subsequently removed from that list.

The fund's purpose language changed from supporting activities 'in units of the state park system' to supporting 'climate stewardship activities in the state park system,' broadening the geographic and programmatic scope beyond individual park units.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'climate stewardship activities' was expanded to include preservation, protection, restoration, development, planning, acquisition, and restoration workforce development, as well as management across all land types. The term 'unit of the state park system' was replaced with the broader term 'state park system.'

REQUIREMENT

Fund expenditure guidelines were updated to prioritize 'multi-benefit projects and programs' rather than just 'projects and programs,' and the policy statement now references mitigating climate change impacts through stewardship as defined in Section 71453.

TECHNICAL

Assembly Member Caloza was added as a coauthor of the bill.

02/19/26 - Introduced → 03/09/26 - Amended Assembly · 7 edits · Mar 9, 2026

MODERATE

The amendment adds an entirely new California State Park Stewardship Act of 2026 (Sections 5019.96-5019.97) that requires the Department of Parks and Recreation to integrate climate considerations into park management and establishes a Wildfire Safety and Climate Stewardship Fund for grants supporting carbon sequestration, fire risk reduction, and ecosystem restoration in state parks. The original historical resources provisions (California Register listing criteria) are retained with minor technical corrections but renumbered as Section 3. This significantly expands the bill's scope from a narrow historical preservation measure to a broad climate stewardship framework for state park lands.

SCOPE

Adds Article 1.9 (Sections 5019.96-5019.97) to the Public Resources Code, establishing the California State Park Stewardship Act of 2026, which requires the Department of Parks and Recreation to integrate climate considerations into all aspects of park planning, development, and operations.

Adds a legislative findings section (Section 1) documenting that the state park system comprises 280 units covering more than 1.6 million acres, including over 150,000 acres of coastal redwoods and one quarter of California's coastline, and that climate change poses escalating threats including extreme heat, wildfires, biodiversity decline, and sea level rise.

FISCAL

Establishes the Wildfire Safety and Climate Stewardship Fund, administered by the Department of Parks and Recreation, to support minimizing fire risk, improving carbon uptake and storage, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions in state park units. Upon legislative appropriation, the fund provides grants for park stewardship, preservation, restoration, development, planning, acquisition, workforce development, and climate stewardship activities.

Authorizes the department to enter agreements to accept funding from local, state, or federal governments, private entities, educational institutions, tribal governments, corporations, businesses, or other organizations for climate resilience and stewardship purposes. These funds supplement but do not replace existing resources.

DEFINITION

Defines 'climate stewardship activities' as projects that intentionally contribute to climate resilience, measurably increase carbon sequestration or carbon stability, and reduce unintended greenhouse gas emissions in state parks. Examples include climate-informed reforestation, prescribed burns, fuel reduction, road decommissioning, and restoration of riparian zones, grasslands, rangelands, forests, and wetlands.

REQUIREMENT

Requires the department to identify and administer best practices for conducting climate stewardship activities through existing and future natural resource management tools. Grant priority must be given to activities that support multiple co-benefits.

TECHNICAL

The historical resources provisions (California Register listing criteria in Section 5024.1) are retained substantively unchanged but renumbered from Section 1 to Section 3, with minor corrections to grammatical errors such as 'an a historical resource' changed to 'a historical resource' and 'which that have' changed to 'that have'.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

May 14, 2026

Lower · Passed

In committee: Held under submission.

lower

Apr 29, 2026

Committee

In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

lower

Apr 20, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

Apr 16, 2026

Lower · Passed

Read second time and amended.

lower

Apr 15, 2026

Introduced

From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 1.) (April 14).

lower

Mar 10, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on W., P., & W.

lower

Mar 9, 2026

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on W., P., & W. Read second time and amended.

lower

Mar 9, 2026

Committee

Referred to Com. on W., P., & W.

lower

Feb 20, 2026

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.

lower

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor