From leginfo.legislature.ca.gov:

Existing law establishes various state water policies, including the policy that the Legislature consider other works as may be necessary to develop water to satisfy the requirements of the watershed in which water originates whenever the Legislature authorizes the construction or acquisition of a project that will develop water for use outside that watershed, as specified.

This bill would declare it to be state policy that source watersheds are recognized and defined as integral components of California’s water infrastructure. The bill would state the particular importance to maintaining the reliability, quantity, timing, and quality of California’s environmental, drinking, and agricultural water supply as climate change advances of source watersheds that supply the majority of the state’s drinking and irrigated agricultural water. The bill would state that the maintenance and repair of source watersheds is eligible for the same forms of financing as other water collection and treatment infrastructure and would specify that the maintenance and repair activities that are eligible are limited to specified forest ecosystem restoration and conservation activities.

SECTION 1. Section 108.5 is added to the Water Code, to read:

108.5.
 (a) It is hereby declared to be the established policy of the state that source watersheds are recognized and defined as integral components of California’s water infrastructure.
(b) (1) As climate change advances, source watersheds that provide the majority of the state’s drinking and irrigated agricultural water are of particular importance to maintaining the reliability, quantity, timing, and quality of California’s environmental, drinking, and agricultural water supply.
(2) Recognizing the critical role of source watersheds in enhancing water supply reliability, the maintenance and repair of source watersheds is eligible for the same forms of financing as other water collection and treatment infrastructure.
(3) Nothing in this section is intended to constrain financing for source watersheds supplying local, state, or federal water systems.
(4) Nothing in this section is intended to supersede federal eligibility requirements or alter any of the following:
(A) Funding criteria or guidelines established for a bond or other measure enacted by the voters.
(B) Funding programs related to pollution control, cleanup, or abatement.
(C) Funding programs for addressing public health emergencies.
(c) Eligible maintenance and repair activities pursuant to this section are limited to the following forest ecosystem restoration and conservation activities:
(1) Upland vegetation management to restore the watershed’s productivity and resiliency.
(2) Wet and dry meadow restoration.
(3) Road removal and repair.
(4) Stream channel restoration.
(5) Conservation of private forests to preserve watershed integrity through permanent prevention of land use conversion and improved land management, achieved through, and secured with, conservation easements.
(6) Other projects with a demonstrated likelihood of increasing conditions for water and snow attraction, retention, and release under changing climate conditions.

From the Conservation Strategy Group blog:

The California Legislature passed AB 2087 (Levine), which provides the legal authority for the creation of advanced mitigation credits based on Regional Conservation Investment Strategies approved by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.  These conservation strategies, while voluntary and non-regulatory, can be used to:

• Guide investments in resource conservation
• Guide infrastructure design and siting
• Identify conservation priorities, including those needed to address climate change
• Identify potential mitigation for impacts to wildlife and habitat
  
  

How AB 2087 Works
Regional Conservation Investment Strategies (RCIS) can be developed by any public agency if a state agency agrees that the strategy would contribute to meeting state goals related to (1) conservation and (2) infrastructure or forest management.   Mitigation credit agreements, based on an approved RCIS, would provide a way to link mitigation to larger conservation goals and reduce the transaction costs and time required to meet mitigation requirements.

Regional advanced mitigation programs (RAMP) have been a goal of the conservation community for years in order to improve the conservation value and effectiveness of project mitigation.  AB 2087 provides a means to achieve this goal.

AB 2087 was sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, with strong support from Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife and numerous other environmental organizations.  The bill was developed by Conservation Strategy Group (CSG) in close cooperation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR), and other state agencies.

Continue to read post in full HERE.

Note: This program is authorized but no funding for it has been appropriated. Funding is in the process of being identified