Section 1784 Of Article 3. Wetlands Mitigation Banks From California Fish And Game Code >> Division 2. >> Chapter 7.8. >> Article 3.
1784
. (a) The department, in cooperation with those agencies
specified in Section 1786, shall adopt regulations that establish
standards and criteria for the bank site qualification process, for
the evaluation of wetland habitat acreage and values created at the
bank sites, and for the operation and evaluation of bank sites, and
any other regulations that are necessary to implement this chapter.
These criteria shall require, at a minimum, that the newly created
wetland provide the hydrologic, vegetative, and wildlife
characteristics, including the food web components, of a naturally
occurring wetland system that is equal to the site being mitigated.
(b) With respect to bank site standards and operator
qualifications, the department shall consider, at a minimum, all of
the following criteria:
(1) A requirement that the bank site have a reliable, adequate,
and available water supply necessary to provide wetland values. For
wetlands dependent only on rainfall, rainfall satisfies this
requirement.
(2) The relative ease or difficulty of converting uplands into
wetlands at the bank site.
(3) The anticipated maintenance necessary to sustain the recreated
and created wetlands at the bank site.
(4) The proximity of the bank site to other established preserves
or natural features historically associated with abundant wildlife
values.
(5) The proximity of the bank site to urban or populated areas
that could reduce the bank site's long-term biological values.
(6) The demonstrated ability of the bank site operator to create,
administer, maintain, and protect the bank site in perpetuity in its
enhanced state, including financial, technical, and management
ability.
(7) The relative abundance or scarcity of the wetland type to be
created at the bank site.
(c) A bank site or mitigation bank site may include any lands on
which rice is grown as long as those lands are managed as ricelands
with the required enhanced wetland values if they otherwise qualify
under this chapter and either of the following conditions exist:
(1) The lands are lands on which rice was grown after January 1,
1996. For purposes of this paragraph, to qualify as new wetland
values, rice shall not have been grown on the lands for 10 years
before the application is submitted pursuant to Section 1785.
(2) The lands are lands on which rice was grown before January 1,
1996. These lands shall qualify only if there is an increase in
wetland habitat value that is equal to the site being mitigated. For
purposes of this paragraph, a wetland value shall only be provided
for lands on which rice was grown that are proposed for wetlands
mitigation for the period when that land is flooded between the
harvesting of rice and the planting of the next crop. This paragraph
shall apply only to lands that were not flooded after harvest between
January 1, 1982, and January 1, 1992.
(d) Any mitigation site established pursuant to subdivision (c)
may be replaced by a new site of an equal wetland value.
(e) This section shall not be construed to permit waters used to
flood rice fields in order to create wetlands mitigation to be
credited as beneficial to wildlife under federal law.