Bill Text: CA AB3147 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: California Trails Conservancy Program.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-24 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to suspense file. [AB3147 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB3147-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 21, 2024 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 3147
| Introduced by Assembly Member Garcia (Coauthor: Assembly Member Wilson) |
February 16, 2024 |
An act to add Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 5829.5) to Division 5 of the Public Resources Code, relating to conservancies. trails.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 3147, as amended, Garcia.
California Trails Conservancy. Conservancy Program.
Existing law establishes the Natural Resources Agency, composed of departments, boards, conservancies, and commissions responsible for the restoration, protection, and management of the state’s natural and cultural resources.
This bill would establish in the agency the California Trails Conservancy Program. The bill would require the program to have specified purposes, including promoting enhanced and expanded environmentally sound greenways and trail networks. If the agency determines that it would benefit these purposes, the bill would authorize the agency to establish an ad hoc working group with specified members, including a representative from the Department of Parks and Recreation.
This bill would also make its provisions operative contingent on Section 2 of Assembly Bill 1567 of the 2023–24 Regular Session taking effect on or before January 1, 2025.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation to create the California Trails Conservancy within the Natural Resources Agency.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) Trails are nature-based, mobility networks connecting people to the splendor of the outdoors and nonmotorized linkages between communities, enabling passive and active recreational enjoyment for all.
(b) The bulk of California’s diverse natural outdoor wonders, including its coast, deserts, and mountainous terrains,
can be best experienced by trail.
(c) Natural surface trails and other human-powered mobility corridors are the connective tissue between the built and natural environments, which link the motorized to the nonmotorized. These trails and corridors are the intersection between human and nature interface, providing valuable exposure and engagement to the state’s natural landscapes and parks, which are rich with unparalleled aesthetics.
(d) The popularity of trails and trail use soared during the COVID-19 pandemic and established a new and sustained outdoor constituency.
(e) Through trail-driven, nature-based exposures, California is galvanizing a new generation of environmental stewards with a shared purpose.
(f) Trails are an emerging economic driver in
many California communities, helping rural California and elsewhere to both prop up the economy and reverse trends resulting from revenue losses rooted in transitions from natural resource-based economies.
(g) The growing popularity and need for trails were underscored during the awarding of funding through the California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Act of 2018, as approved by the voters at the June 5, 2018, statewide election. As a result of the passage of the act, the demand for program funding was five dollars ($5) for every one dollar ($1) awarded.
(h) Trail use and enjoyment, such as trails associated with networks, including the Coachella Valley Link, also serve a utility, providing seamless, nonmotorized commuter corridors while reducing local traffic patterns and resultant pollutants.
(i) Trail demand is growing throughout the state, and it is incumbent upon California to meet this need where trails scarcities exist, such as areas in and around the Coachella Valley and Salton Sea.
(j) Emerging trends in trail use, including electric bicycles and other mobility devices, are leading to increased use and user conflicts, resulting in increased injuries and accidents and accelerating the degradation of natural and other surface type trails.
(k) Unlawful trail development and patterns of rogue trail activities resulting from various factors, including a scarcity of dedicated trails infrastructure, compromises the environmental, recreational, and aesthetic values of the state’s landscapes, fragmenting habitat and inducing unwanted erosion.
(l) California’s various land managers have vast networks of trails, prompting the need for a single entity established to, among other things, facilitate the coordination of efforts to plan for and promote seamless, multijurisdictional trails and trail linkages through increased use of memorandums of understanding, shared use, volunteer agreements, and trail easements between public, private, and nonprofit managers in order to maximize trail opportunities.
SEC. 2.
Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 5829.5) is added to Division 5 of the Public Resources Code, to read:CHAPTER 8.5. California Trails Conservancy Program
5829.5.
(a) There is hereby established in the Natural Resources Agency the California Trails Conservancy Program. The purposes of the program are all of the following: (1) To promote enhanced and expanded environmentally sound greenways and trail networks.
(2) To promote equitable access and expand diverse trail-based recreational and mobility opportunities for all Californians.
(3) To promote policies, practices, and funding opportunities in order to optimize the continued growth and integrity of existing and prospective systems of nature-based and other human-powered mobility networks for the benefit of all
Californians.
(b) If the agency determines that it would benefit the purposes of the program, as described in subdivision (a), the agency may form an ad hoc working group. The working group may be composed of members from the hiking community, the equestrian community, the mountain biking community, the environmental justice community, the land trust and conservation community, and the tribal or the Native American community, members from a California-based outdoor enterprise or company, and representatives from the department, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Wildlife Conservation Board, the State Coastal Conservancy, the various state conservancies, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the United States National Parks Service, and the United States Forest Service.
SEC. 3.
This act shall become operative only if Section 2 of Assembly Bill 1567 of the 2023–24 Regular Session takes effect on or before January 1, 2025.It is the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation to create the California Trails Conservancy within the Natural Resources Agency.
