The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) Wetlands are an important natural resource of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley because they provide significant habitat for migratory waterfowl of the Pacific flyway, for endangered species, and for many other resident wildlife and fish populations. Wetlands provide additional public benefits, including water quality improvement, flood protection, stream bank stabilization, recreation, and scientific research.

(b) Active and voluntary involvement by private landowners is necessary for the long-term availability and productivity of wetlands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.

(c) Large wetland preserves in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, under certain circumstances, can provide an environmentally preferable alternative to a number of small, isolated wetland preserves of the same type surrounded by urban development.

(d) It is the policy of the state with respect to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley:

(1) To provide for the protection, preservation, restoration, enhancement, and expansion of the wetland habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.

(2) To promote the protection, preservation, restoration, enhancement, and expansion of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley wetlands in concert with other federal, state, and local programs, and interested parties.

(3) To improve cooperative efforts among private, nonprofit, and public entities for the management and protection of wetlands.

(4) To assure that no net loss of either wetland acreage or habitat values results from activities pursuant to this chapter in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley that otherwise comply with state and federal law.

(5) To encourage and maintain a predictable, efficient, and timely regulatory framework for environmentally acceptable development.

(6) To assure that the construction or maintenance of wetland mitigation banks in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley does not reduce any local tax base, does not create any uncompensated increased requirement for local services, and does not create conditions that have the potential to adversely affect the public health.

(7) To provide an alternative for accomplishing offsite mitigation in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley when offsite mitigation is required under a fill permit issued pursuant to Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. § 1344 et seq.).

(e) This chapter constitutes a nonexclusive alternative to other lawful methods of mitigating project impacts upon wetlands and maintaining and increasing wetlands acreage and habitat values generally. Specifically, this chapter is not intended to, and shall not be interpreted to:

(1) Condone or encourage the removal, loss, or degradation of wetlands.

(2) Condone or encourage the removal, loss, or degradation of habitat for any rare, threatened, or endangered species.

(3) Abrogate any other local, state, or federal law or policy relating to wetlands, nor prohibit any city or county from prohibiting the removal, filling, or other destruction of particular wetlands.

(4) Establish maximum or minimum standards or any other requirements for wetland fill or mitigation, except for mitigation banks established pursuant to this chapter.

(5) Have legal or necessary precedential application to any other area of the state, or to other lands, resources, situations, or circumstances.

(6) Preclude other forms of mitigation banking, including private or for-profit programs, within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.

(7) Be the exclusive method of providing compensation by permittees for the loss of wetlands within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.

(Added by Stats. 1993, Ch. 1254, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1994.)