Environmental protection: Natural Resources Agency: resource of statewide significance: Santa Cruz Mountains.

The term 'landscape resource of statewide significance' was changed to 'resource of statewide significance' in the Part 9 heading, Section 71470(c), and the legislative counsel's digest. This removes the specific 'landscape' qualifier from the legal designation of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Principal coauthors (Senator Laird and Assembly Member Berman) were removed from the enrolled version, which is standard formatting for final bills.

Procedural enrollment language was added including Senate passage date (May 7, 2026), Assembly passage date (August 20, 2026), and a blank line for the Governor's approval date.

The formal designation of the Santa Cruz Mountains changed from 'a landscape of statewide significance' to 'a landscape resource of statewide significance,' adding the word 'resource' to the legal classification.

Subdivision (d) was restructured so that instead of requiring the Natural Resources Agency to directly perform actions (protect, restore, preserve, support, improve, develop), it now requires the agency and its boards, departments, and conservancies to 'encourage collaborative stewardship approaches that support' those outcomes. This shifts from a direct action mandate to a softer encouragement-based standard.

The obligation in subdivision (d) now explicitly includes 'its boards, departments, and conservancies' as parties who must encourage collaborative stewardship, whereas the prior version only named 'the Natural Resources Agency' in that subdivision (though they were referenced in the designation language of subdivision (c)).

The agency's obligation was changed from 'shall do all of the following' to 'shall encourage collaborative stewardship approaches that support all of the following,' shifting from direct action to a softer encouragement role.

A new subdivision (e) explicitly states the section shall not be construed as authorizing the Natural Resources Agency to impose additional regulatory requirements on land use or working lands, including timber and agricultural lands.

A new definition of 'protection' was added, incorporating by reference the meaning defined in Section 90100 of the Public Resources Code.

Three new activity categories were added: (6) promotion of long-term sustainability and conservation of working lands, (7) collaboration with local tribes on cultural resources, restoration, access, and potential comanagement of ancestral lands, and (8) promotion of voluntary stewardship through technical assistance, conservation easements, incentive programs, and multibenefit projects.

New legislative findings were added recognizing working lands (timberlands, ranches, agricultural lands) as essential to the regional economy and providing ecosystem services; acknowledging Indigenous peoples' ancestral connection and traditional ecological knowledge; and noting the landscape is a mosaic of public and private lands requiring collaborative approaches that respect private property rights.