Background and Context

Regulations governing forest management, conservation, and restoration projects are complex and difficult for landowners and community groups to navigate, and they are a particular barrier to the implementation of large-scale, multi-parcel and cross-jurisdictional projects. Due to permitting costs and complexity, many project sponsors have avoided restoration and enhancement projects that require complex permits. Thus many beneficial projects with outstanding opportunities to improve ecosystem function are often reduced in scope or avoided completely to prevent anticipated permitting difficulties that can affect a project budget and timeline, or are not fully implemented in order to comply with exemptions that have more restrictive limitations on actions. Improvements to the current permitting approach would increase the pace, scope, and scale of beneficial projects being planned and implemented on private and public lands.

The Cutting Green Tape initiative of the CNRA seeks to improve interagency coordination, partnerships, processes, and policies to increase the pace and scale of conservation and restoration work. Many projects are eligible for an array of established exemptions and can be permitted and navigated through CEQA in a straightforward manner. Examples include reforestation, hand treatments, and pile burning. CEQA and permitting pathways are typically more complex for 1) timber operations that generate marketable commercial forest products, 2) prescribed burn projects that involve broadcast burning across the landscape, 3) mechanically treating fuels such as mastication across the landscape, and 4) any other projects on larger acreages. Often a barrier for moving a project to design and implementation is the pre-permitting technical studies such as archeological and biological scoping and surveying. Investing in upfront pre-permitting technical assistance will help produce positive outcomes in terms of timeliness. The region is relying on the state to complete all planned actions to improve regulatory efficiency detailed in the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, including completing a permit synchronization workplan, completing THP guidance documents, improving and expanding CalTREES, enhancing CalVTP implementation, updating PFIRS, and assisting landowners with endangered species conservation. This includes implementing the smarter permitting recommendations in the Cutting Green Tape report.