BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 2001


                                                                    Page  1


          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS


          AB  
          2001 (Mathis)


          As Amended  August 2, 2016


          Majority vote


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          |ASSEMBLY:  |76-0  |(April 28,     |SENATE: |38-0  |(August 16,      |
          |           |      |2016)          |        |      |2016)            |
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          |           |      |               |        |      |                 |
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          Original Committee Reference:  W., P., & W.


          SUMMARY:  Authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW)  
          to permit the taking of the Owens pupfish, a fully protected  
          fish, in the Owens River and Mojave River watersheds if the take  
          is authorized under a safe harbor agreement.


          The Senate amendments:


          1)Delete provisions in the Assembly version which would have  
            amended the statute governing fully protected fish species to  
            clarify that the DFW may authorize the taking of a fully  
            protected fish for purpose of efforts to recover the species,  
            whether or not those efforts are part of a scientific research  
            project.


          2)Add a new section authorizing the DFW to authorize the taking  








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            of the Owens pupfish in the Owens River and Mojave River  
            watersheds if the take is authorized under a safe harbor  
            agreement.


          3)Add technical amendments to avoid chaptering out problems with  
            AB 1845 (Dahle) and AB 2488 (Dababneh) of the current  
            legislative session.


          4)Make other technical corrections.


          EXISTING LAW: 


          1)Prohibits the taking or possession of a fully protected fish  
            except as specified.  The species that are classified as fully  
            protected fish include but are not limited to the Owens River  
            pupfish.


          2)Permits the DFW to authorize the taking of a fully protected  
            fish for scientific research, including efforts to recover  
            fully protected, threatened, or endangered species.  Requires  
            the DFW before authorizing the take of a fully protected fish  
            to make an effort to notify all affected and interested  
            parties, to publish the notice in the California Regulatory  
            Notice Register, and to provide 30 days after publication for  
            submittal of comments.


          3)Authorizes the DFW to authorize the taking of a fully  
            protected fish species whose conservation and management is  
            provided for in a natural community conservation plan (NCCP)  
            approved by the DFW.  


          4)Authorizes the DFW to authorize incidental take of the fully  
            protected unarmored threespine stickleback fish, and the fully  
            protected limestone salamander, under certain limited  
            circumstances, provided specified criteria and standards are  








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            met for minimization, mitigation and conservation. 


          5)Provides for the listing of species as threatened or  
            endangered under federal and state endangered species acts.   
            The DFW may issue permits for incidental take of listed  
            species, if specified conditions are met, including  
            mitigation, minimization, and adaptive management  
            requirements.


          FISCAL EFFECT:  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible if any state  
          costs.


          COMMENTS:  This bill as amended in the Senate accomplishes the  
          author's stated purpose of allowing the take of Owens pupfish  
          for purposes of assisting in recovery of the species, but  
          through a narrower means than proposed in the Assembly version.   



          The Bishop Paiute Tribe has been working for several years to  
          obtain permits to relocate some of the endangered Owens pupfish  
          to conservation ponds built on the reservation's Native Fish  
          Refuge.  In 2014 the United States (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife  
          Service proposed to grant the tribe a permit under a safe harbor  
          agreement to relocate fish from Fish Slough to the ponds as part  
          of the tribe's efforts to contribute toward recovery of the  
          species.  A safe harbor agreement is a voluntary agreement  
          whereby the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in exchange for  
          actions that contribute to the recovery of a listed species on  
          non-federal lands, provides assurances that if the parties to  
          the agreement fulfill the conditions of the agreement,  
          additional management activities will not be required.  At the  
          end of the agreement period, participants may also return the  
          property to baseline conditions.  The safe harbor agreement,  
          however, was put on hold due to concerns raised by neighboring  
          landowners that they might face liability under California's  
          fully protected species statute.









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          California also has a safe harbor statute (Fish and Game Code  
          Section 2089.2).  However, while the DFW under current law may  
          enter into safe harbor agreements and issue incidental take  
          permits for species protected under the California Endangered  
          Species Act (CESA), subject to the mitigation and other  
          requirements of CESA, the Fully Protected Species statutes do  
          not allow for issuance of incidental take permits, except for  
          scientific purposes.  The Assembly version of this bill would  
          have amended the fully protected species statute to allow for  
          take permits to be issued for take of fully protected fish  
          species for a project, the purpose of which is to recover the  
          species.  While the author introduced this bill to assist Owens  
          pupfish recovery efforts of the Bishop Piaute Tribe, the  
          Assembly version of this bill was not limited to tribal  
          activities, or to the Owens pupfish.  It was, however, limited  
          to recovery projects and did not include actions taken as part  
          of mitigation for a project.


          This bill as amended by the Senate now provides a more narrow  
          exception allowing for authorization of take of the Owens  
          pupfish in the Owens River and Mohave River watersheds if the  
          take is authorized under a safe harbor agreement.   


          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          Diane Colborn / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096     
                                                                  FN:  
          0003754