Legislation to Protect Habitat Conservation Fund Passes Senate Committee
The Habitat Conservation Fund has helped pay for habitat linkages along Lusardi Creek. Above is a portion of the creek's hiking trail.
SACRAMENTO – Legislation by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, and Sen. Henry Stern, D-Los Angeles, to indefinitely protect state funding to acquire, restore and enhance wildlife habitats across the state was passed Tuesday by the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee.
SB 427 would remove the July 1, 2030, sunset date for the Habitat Conservation Fund (HCF), which was established under Proposition 117, the California Wildlife Protection Act passed by voters in June 1990. To date, the fund has protected more than 1.2 million acres of wildlife habitat throughout California.
“In a state as beautiful and wondrous as California, we need to safeguard our open spaces and protect and restore wildlife habitat,” Sen. Blakespear said. “That’s what the Habitat Conservation Fund has been doing for over three decades. SB 427 ensures this important fund will continue long into the future.”
The program has funded hundreds of projects. They include the world’s largest wildlife crossing over Highway 101 in Agoura Hills, a new trails gateway into Redwood National and State Parks and an ancestral land-return project in San Bernardino County.
The Wildlife Conservation Board has allocated $13.9 million in HCF money in Senate District 38 for projects since 1990, including $1.9 million for habitat linkages along Lusardi Creek in San Diego County, $2.2 million for the acquisition of 134 acres along Buena Vista Creek in Carlsbad and Oceanside and $1.3 million for the Trabuco Creek Fish Passage Project in south Orange County. Cities, counties and any regional park or open-space district are eligible to apply for these funds.
Prop 117 directed $30 million to be transferred annually from the state’s General Fund into the conservation fund until 2020. In 2019, the Legislature and Governor extended the fund until 2030. The money is distributed by the Wildlife Conservation Board.
In recent years, however, state budgetary pressures have led lawmakers to consider discontinuing the fund. Last year, the Governor initially recommended ending the General Fund transfers to the HCF six years early, but Sen. Blakespear fought the proposal and helped keep the fund intact.
The legislation is co-sponsored by Audubon California and the National Wildlife Federation, and supported by the Planning and Conservation League and more than 90 other organizations.
SB 427 goes next to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration.
Blakespear represents Senate District 38, which covers northern San Diego County and part of southern Orange County. To learn more about the district and Sen. Blakespear, visit her Senate website.