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State
California
FGC Sec 2720-2729 FISHERIES RESTORATION

FISH AND GAME CODE
SECTION 2760-2765





2760. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the
Keene-Nielsen Fisheries Restoration Act of 1985.



2761. The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) Many of California's significant fish and wildlife resources
in inland and coastal waters have declined as the result of many
development projects which have provided valuable economic growth.
(b) Fish and wildlife have been adversely affected by water
developments that have significantly altered water flows in many of
California's rivers and streams, thereby affecting fish and wildlife,
their habitat, adjacent riparian habitat, spawning areas, and
migration routes.
(c) Fish and wildlife are important public resources with
significant economical, environmental, recreational, aesthetic, and
educational values.
(d) California intends to make reasonable efforts to prevent
further declines in fish and wildlife, to restore fish and wildlife
to historic levels where possible, and to enhance fish and wildlife
resources where possible.
(e) Protection of, and an increase in, the naturally spawning
salmon and steelhead trout resources of the state would provide a
valuable public resource to the residents, a large statewide economic
benefit, and would, in addition, provide employment opportunities
not otherwise available to the citizens of this state, particularly
in rural areas of underemployment.
(f) The protection of, and increase in, the naturally spawning
salmon and steelhead trout resources of the state should be
accomplished primarily through the improvement of stream habitat.
(g) The Salmon, Steelhead Trout, and Anadromous Fisheries Program
Act (Ch. 8 (commencing with Sec. 6900), Pt. 1, Div. 6), declares that
it is the policy of the state to increase the state's salmon and
steelhead trout resources, and directs the department to develop a
plan and program that strives to double the salmon and steelhead
trout resources.


2762. (a) The Fisheries Restoration Account is hereby created in
the Fish and Game Preservation Fund. The moneys in the Fisheries
Restoration Account are hereby appropriated to the department for
expenditure in fiscal years 1991-92 to 1993-94, inclusive, pursuant
to subdivision (b).
(b) The moneys in the Fisheries Restoration Account may be
expended for the construction, operation, and administration of
projects designated in the plan developed by the department in
accordance with the Salmon, Steelhead Trout, and Anadromous Fisheries
Program Act (Ch. 8 (commencing with Sec. 6900), Pt. 1, Div. 6), and
projects designed to restore and maintain fishery resources and their
habitat that have been damaged by past water diversions and projects
and other development activities. Expenditures shall not be
authorized for a project to be funded under this subdivision before a
date which is 30 days after the department has furnished a copy of
the proposal for the project to be funded, together with supporting
descriptions, to the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture and
to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. These projects shall
have as their primary objective the restoration of fishery resources
identified in the Salmon, Steelhead Trout, and Anadromous Fisheries
Program Act. Projects may include, but shall not be limited to,
watershed assessments, fisheries restoration planning, acquisition of
lands, restoration of habitat, restoration or creation of spawning
areas, construction of fish screens or fish ladders, stream
rehabilitation, and installation of pollution control facilities.
Projects for restoration or creation of spawning areas shall utilize
natural spawning rather than hatcheries to the extent possible.
Under no circumstances shall any water project be absolved under
this subdivision of any mitigation requirements which are placed upon
it under existing law.
No land shall be acquired pursuant to this chapter by eminent
domain proceedings.
(c) Priority for funding shall be given to projects that employ
fishermen, fish processing workers, and others who are unemployed or
underemployed due to the elimination of a commercial fishing season
as a result of restrictions imposed by federal regulations. This
priority shall remain in effect only as long as those restrictions
are in force.
(d) Expenditures shall not be authorized for multiyear projects
funded under subdivision (b) before a date which is 30 days after the
department has submitted an annual progress report on the project
and a copy of the work schedule for subsequent year funding of the
project to the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture and to
the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
(e) The department shall conduct a preproject and postproject
evaluation on each project recommended in the plan and program
developed by the department in accordance with the Salmon, Steelhead
Trout, and Anadromous Fisheries Program Act for which money has been
appropriated from the Fisheries Restoration Account.
(f) The department may expend not more than 5 percent of the funds
annually appropriated from the Fisheries Restoration Account for the
administration of projects.
(g) The department may contract for services for the purpose of
conducting a preproject and postproject evaluation or for the
administration of projects.
(h) The department shall, during the last fiscal year of funding,
conduct a review of all previous and ongoing projects to determine if
the elements of the plan and program developed by the department
pursuant to the Salmon, Steelhead Trout, and Anadromous Fisheries
Program Act are being met, including the goal of doubling the 1988
population of salmon and steelhead trout, as declared in Section
6902.



2762.2. The department may advance partial finding, of up to 50
percent of the amount contracted for, to contractors for projects
under subdivision (b) of Section 2762 if the director finds the
organization meets all of the following requirements:
(1) It has a previously demonstrated record of successfully
completing one or more fishery restoration projects funded under
contract with the department.
(2) It utilizes generally accepted accounting procedures.
(3) It demonstrates that the project can be accomplished more
efficiently and economically with partial funding advanced at the
initiation of the project.


2762.5. In addition to subdivision (b) of Section 2762, the moneys
in the Fisheries Restoration Account may be expended, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, by the department to fund the
administrative costs of the Advisory Committee on Salmon and
Steelhead Trout.



2762.6. The department shall, after consultation with the Advisory
Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout, allocate that amount of
moneys appropriated to the department from the Public Resources
Account in the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Surtax Fund which the
department determines to be necessary to pay the costs for the
advisory committee.



2763. The director shall consult with the Resources Agency, the
Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control
Board, the State Coastal Conservancy, the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission, and the California Coastal
Commission in determining projects proposed for funding pursuant to
Section 2762.



2764. The director shall consult with other responsible state
agencies and appropriate fishery advisory committees, including, but
not limited to, the Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout
and the Striped Bass Stamp Advisory Committee, in developing projects
to be funded pursuant to Section 2762.



2765. The California Water Commission, in any recommendation it may
make to the Congress of the United States on funding for water
projects, shall include recommendations for studies, programs, and
facilities necessary to correct fish and wildlife problems cause,
fully or partially, by federal water facilities and operation,
including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(a) The Red Bluff Dam.
(b) The Trinity and Lewiston Dams.
(c) The facilities necessary to protect wildlife areas in the
Suisun Marsh and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from adverse water
quality effects caused by the federal Central Valley Project.
(d) The Kesterson Reservoir and the San Luis Drain.