California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: prescribed fire, reforestation, habitat restoration, thinning, or fuel reduction projects.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. Existing law, until January 1, 2028, except for the issuance of a permit or other permit approval, exempts from the requirements of CEQA prescribed fire, reforestation, habitat restoration, thinning, or fuel reduction projects, or related activities, undertaken, in whole or in part, on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 meeting certain requirements. Existing law requires a lead agency, if it determines that a project qualifies for the above exemption and it determines to approve or carry out the project, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and with the county clerk in the county in which the project will be located and to post the notice of exemption on its internet website together with a description of where the documents analyzing the environmental impacts of the project under the federal act are available for review. Existing law requires the lead agency, if it is not the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to provide the notice of exemption and certain information to the department. This bill would extend the above exemption and requirements on the lead agency indefinitely. By extending the requirements on the lead agency, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.