HomeMy WebLinkAbout03.18.21 Board of Forestry draft rules
From:Pickett, Andy
To:Alpert, Bruce;Bennett, Robin;Clerk of the Board;Connelly, Bill;Cook, Holly;Cook, Robin;Kimmelshue, Tod;
Lucero, Debra;Paulsen, Shaina;Pickett, Andy;Ring, Brian;Ritter, Tami;Rodas, Amalia;Sweeney, Kathleen;
Teeter, Doug
Cc:Daneluk, Paula
Subject:Board of Forestry draft rules
Date:Thursday, March 18, 2021 6:13:10 PM
Attachments:Butte County Request for Extension.pdf
Board Members,
Yesterday I sent the attached letter to the State Board of Forestry (BOF) regarding proposed rules for
development in certain areas of the foothills.
The BOF released in December a draft of proposed rules, with a request for stakeholders to provide
comments on the draft. RCRC and CSAC asked that Counties provide their comments through them,
as they could submit joint and coordinated comments to the BOF. Our directors of DDS, PW, and Fire
Chief provided their comments on the draft.
Last month BOF released an updated draft, and a new round of comments followed.
The BOF released another draft on March 15, and required any comments to be provided by noon
on March 17, giving less than 2 full days for comment. The stated reason the BOF gave less than 2
days to comment is that they were getting very few letters (ignoring the fact that the RCRC and CSAC
letters represented dozens of Counties).
The BOF had also said they were not under strict deadline to finish this, and pointed to several other
areas they wanted to include in the new regulations that they hadn’t started working on yet.
However, with the March 15 draft, we were advised that the BOF viewed the draft as ready to
proceed into the formal commenting period. This is months ahead of what had been communicated.
Given the facts, I felt it was important for the BOF to hear directly from us, as well as others.
However, we are scheduled to present this item to your Board on March 23, after the comment
period closed, so I sent the BOF a letter under my signature so they hear directly from us what our
concerns are. The request from my letter is for the BOF to extend the timeline of the informal
comment period to have additional time to go over our (and other counties’) concerns.
We will provide more information at your next Board meeting.
Andy
Máximo A. Pickett
Chief Administrative Officer
Butte County Administration
25 County Center Drive, Suite 200, Oroville, CA 95965
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