(a) Contingent upon funding being provided by the Wildlife Conservation Board from moneys available pursuant to § 75055 of the Public Resources Code, or from other appropriate bond funds, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the department shall investigate, study, and identify those areas in the state that are most essential as wildlife corridors and habitat linkages, as well as the impacts to those wildlife corridors from climate change, and shall prioritize vegetative data development in these areas.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Wildlife Conservation Board use various funds to work with the department to complete a statewide analysis of wildlife corridors and connectivity to support conservation planning and climate change adaptation activities.

Terms Used In California Fish and Game Code 1930.5

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Department: means the Department of Fish and Wildlife. See California Fish and Game Code 37
  • Fish: means a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals. See California Fish and Game Code 45
  • State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Fish and Game Code 83
  • Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which that term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Fish and Game Code 73
  • Take: means hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill, or attempt to hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill. See California Fish and Game Code 86
  • Wildlife: means and includes all wild animals, birds, plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and related ecological communities, including the habitat upon which the wildlife depends for its continued viability. See California Fish and Game Code 89.5

(c) (1) It is the policy of the state to promote the voluntary protection of wildlife corridors and habitat strongholds in order to enhance the resiliency of wildlife and their habitats to climate change, protect biodiversity, and allow for the migration and movement of species by providing connectivity between habitat lands. In order to further these goals, it is the policy of the state to encourage, wherever feasible and practicable, voluntary steps to protect the functioning of wildlife corridors through various means, as applicable and to the extent feasible and practicable, those means may include, but are not limited to:

(A) Acquisition or protection of wildlife corridors as open space through conservation easements.

(B) Installing of wildlife-friendly or directional fencing.

(C) Siting of mitigation and conservation banks in areas that provide habitat connectivity for affected fish and wildlife resources.

(D) Provision of roadway undercrossings, overpasses, oversized culverts, or bridges to allow for fish passage and the movement of wildlife between habitat areas.

(2) The fact that a project applicant does not take voluntary steps to protect the functioning of a wildlife corridor prior to initiating the application process for a project shall not be grounds for denying a permit or requiring additional mitigation beyond what would be required to mitigate project impacts under other applicable laws, including, but not limited to, the California Endangered Species Act (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 2050) of Division 3) and the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code).

(d) The Legislature finds and declares that there are a number of existing efforts, including, but not limited to, efforts involving working landscapes, that are already working to achieve the policy described in subdivision (c).

(e) Subdivision (c) shall not be construed to create new regulatory requirements or modify the requirements of subparagraphs (B) and (E) of paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of Section 2820, or the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code).

(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 132, Sec. 30. (AB 1760) Effective January 1, 2024.)

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