Section 4790.

The Legislature finds and declares that:

(a) Forest lands, while often managed to produce wood fiber for building materials and paper manufacture, also provide public benefits, including employment opportunities in both rural and urban areas, renewable energy, protection and enhancement of air, water, and soil resources, fish and wildlife habitat, and opportunities for aesthetic and recreational enjoyment.

(b) Historically, substantial areas of forest land were not reforested or otherwise managed for optimum production of forest resources following harvest operations, wildfires, unsuccessful attempts to clear the land for other uses, or damage by insects, disease, or other natural catastrophes. As a result, an estimated five million acres of public and private forest land in the state are producing substantially less forest resources than their potential. These areas are inadequately stocked with trees or are occupied by damaged or diseased trees or species of less value for sawtimber and other forest products. Some lands also have suffered from or are threatened with depletion by soil erosion. Water quality and quantity has suffered and fish habitats have also been adversely affected. In areas where forest regeneration has occurred, the present forest stand would often produce significantly greater timber supplies if thinning or other forest improvement investments were made.

(c) Future demand for timber supplies and other demands for forest resources are likely to rise substantially. Future supplies of these renewable resources are presently estimated to decline for a period and then to recover, but at a rate significantly slower than the rate of increase in demand.

(d) Wood waste products and tree or shrub species not normally utilized to produce building materials can provide opportunities for an alternative means to generate electrical energy or could be converted to solid, gaseous, or liquid fuels for transport or industrial use. Future supplies of wood products not usable for building materials, and, therefore potentially available for energy production, will be increased if forest resource improvements are made.

(e) The forest efficiently captures and stores solar energy. Wood products can be produced with a significantly lower energy cost than most competing substitutes. This disparity is likely to increase in the future.

(f) A relatively small amount of forest land is currently being reforested, other than pursuant to the stocking requirements of the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 (Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 4511) of Part 2) applicable following timber harvesting. Obstacles to private investments in reforesting or improving forest lands include: the extraordinarily long time required for such investments to produce income; the risk of loss due to fire, insect, or disease; lack of necessary forestry expertise or knowledge of the potential benefits of improved forest resource management; the difficulty of transferring capital invested in forest resource improvements to other investment opportunities or otherwise using the funds for other needs once the initial investment has been made; and the fact that some forest resource investments, including erosion control measures, may not produce any income recognizable to the landowner.

(g) Over one-half of the privately owned, commercial forest land in the state is owned by nonindustrial landowners. Forest resources that can be provided by these lands will be increasingly important in the future. Yet the owners of these lands often lack forestry expertise, economic incentive, or capital needed to make investments to increase present and future availability of forest resource benefits from their lands.

(h) Investments in public and private forest land are essential if adequate future timber supplies are to be available and if the forest resource system of soil, air, water, and vegetative and animal life is to be maintained in a productive condition for the future. These investments will also lessen fire hazards and improve watershed protection following catastrophic destruction of forests and other vegetative cover by fire, wind, flood, insects, disease, and other causes.

(i) Failure to make the necessary investments will lead to higher prices for increasingly scarce forest products, lower rural and urban employment in the forest products and related industries and businesses, and the loss or diminished value of soils and other forest resources.

(j) Forest resource improvements made pursuant to this chapter serve a public purpose and will promote the health, welfare, and economic security of the citizens of the state.

(Amended by Stats. 2000, Ch. 409, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2001.)