SACRAMENTO UPDATE
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
Proposition 68 (De Leon): Water and Parks Bond
CalTrout has followed the progress of Prop 68 since it was an idea hatched in the legislature last year. Before Prop 68 landed on the June ballot, it was first passed through the California legislature as SB 5. CalTrout worked to ensure that the Bond measure included natural resources funding and we succeeded in securing language that included funding for multi-benefit flood plain projects (Nigiri) and for barrier removal projects (Matilija).
Once passed out of the legislature with language we could support, CalTrout continued its efforts to support Prop 68 leading up to the June ballot. CalTrout joined the Executive Board of The Committee for Clean Water, Natural Resources & Parks, which, together with other conservation and urban parks groups, advocated for the passage of Prop 68. Although we will continue to advocate for natural resource interests outside of bond measures, we are pleased that Prop 68 passed.
STATUS: Bill passed.
AB 2528 (Bloom): Source Waters
This year CalTrout has sponsored Assemblymember Bloom’s AB 2528 measure, which highlights some of CalTrout’s key areas of interests: source
watersheds, mountain meadows, strongholds, and estuaries. Every three years the Natural Resource Agency produces a research-heavy Climate Adaptation Strategy paper, and AB 2528 would make sure that these four climate resiliency areas are analyzed for their importance in the climate change and climate adaptation conversation. AB 2528 addresses gaps in protections for California’s most resilient watershed, riverine and coastal ecosystems in the face of unavoidable climate change. This bill calls out these “resilience areas” because they have either fallen into protection gaps or because California has not yet made it a priority to protect the
best remaining resilience areas.
STATUS: AB2528: Now has passed through the Assembly entirely and sits in the Senate (where it waits for a vote after passing through Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee). Please check in with CalTrout in September to see if this bill has passed!