(a) Of the amount made available pursuant to Section 80130, fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) shall be available to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, except as provided in subdivision (c), for projects that provide ecological restoration of forests. Projects may include, but are not limited to, forest restoration activities that include hazardous fuel reduction, postfire watershed rehabilitation, prescribed or managed burns, acquisition of forest conservation easements or fee interests, and forest management practices that promote forest resilience to severe wildfire, climate change, and other disturbances. The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection shall achieve geographic balance with the moneys allocated pursuant to this section and may, where appropriate, include activities on lands owned by the United States.

(b) Not less than 30 percent of the amount available pursuant to this section shall be allocated for urban forestry projects pursuant to Section 4799.12. The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection shall allocate no less than 50 percent of the moneys allocated pursuant to this subdivision for the expansion of the urban forestry program to previously underserved local entities in order to achieve geographic balance.

Terms Used In California Public Resources Code 80135

  • Department: means the Department of Parks and Recreation. See California Public Resources Code 80002
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Protection: means those actions necessary to prevent harm or damage to persons, property, or natural, cultural, and historic resources, actions to improve access to public open-space areas, or actions to allow the continued use and enjoyment of property or natural, cultural, and historic resources, and includes site monitoring, acquisition, development, restoration, preservation, and interpretation. See California Public Resources Code 80002
  • Restoration: means the improvement of physical structures or facilities and, in the case of natural systems and landscape features, includes, but is not limited to, projects for the control of erosion, stormwater capture and storage or to otherwise reduce stormwater pollution, the control and elimination of invasive species, the planting of native species, the removal of waste and debris, prescribed burning, fuel hazard reduction, fencing out threats to existing or restored natural resources, road elimination, improving instream, riparian, or managed wetland habitat conditions, and other plant and wildlife habitat improvement to increase the natural system value of the property or coastal or ocean resource. See California Public Resources Code 80002

(c) Of the amount subject to this section, 50 percent shall be allocated directly to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to administer projects pursuant to this section for purposes of implementing the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program. For purposes of this section, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy may allocate funds to the California Tahoe Conservancy for projects within the jurisdiction of the California Tahoe Conservancy.

(Added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 852, Sec. 3. Approved in Proposition 68 at the June 5, 2018, election.)