California Code of Regulations › Title 14 - Natural Resources › Division 1.5 - Department of Forestry and Fire Protection › Chapter 9.8 - Chaparral Management › Article 1 - Introduction › Section 1561.1 - Definitions

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
PRC Section Containing Ref. Def.
The definitions set forth in this section and the
					 definitions contained in Sections
					 4104
					 and
					 4464
					 of the Public Resources Code are applicable to this chapter.
PRC Sec.
							 Containing Ref. Def.
"Act" means the provisions of Chapter 525, Statutes
							 of 1980.
"Board" means the State Board of Forestry and Fire
							 Protection.
700(a),
730
"Chaparral" means brush stands that may fall into
							 one or more of three types: "hard" chaparral, "soft" chaparral, and mountain
							 brush.
Hard chaparral is characterized by usually dense
							 stands of tough, upright woody shrubs such as manzanita
							 (
Arctostaphylos
Spp.
Ceanothus
Spp.), scrub
							 oak (Quercus Spp.), and chamise (
Adenostoma
Spp.). These plant
							 communities are highly flammable after 20-30 years, and may burn inadvertently
							 every 20 to 50 years.
Soft chaparral is characterized by shrubs such as
							 sage (
Saliva
Spp.) buckwheat (
Eriogonum
Spp.)
							 and sagebrush (
Artemisia
Spp.). These shrubs tend to be
							 limber, and grow in less dense, more penetrable stands. Because grasses are a
							 common component, this type may burn inadvertently on a more frequent cycle, as
							 little as 2-5 years.
Mountain brush, or forest chaparral, may occur at
							 higher altitudes on large acreages as a secondary succession stage in
							 coniferous forests. Most species are different from those of the "hard"
							 chaparral and include many deciduous species.
"Cost-share" means the proportionate amount of the
							 resources needed for site preparation, prescribed fire operations and liability
							 insurance that is to be provided by each party according to the cost sharing
							 agreement. The state's share of the costs shall bear the same ratio to the
							 total costs of the operation as the public benefits bear to all public and
							 private benefits to be derived from the operation, but will not exceed 90% of
							 the total project cost.
"Cost-sharing agreement" means the written agreement
							 between an eligible landowner and the Department whereby the state assumes
							 responsibility for a percentage of the total cost of the prescribed burning or
							 other hazardous fuels reduction that the state does for the landowner.
"Deer forage lanes" means the narrow strips of
							 treated vegetation through brush stands which provide deer browse and
							 facilitate animal travel.
"Department" means the Department of Forestry and
							 Fire Protection.
700(a),
700(b)
"Director" means the Director of the Department of
							 Forestry and Fire Protection or his/her duly authorized
							 representative.
"Eligible landowner" means an owner of property, or
							 any other person meeting the requirements of PRC 4475 and 14 CAC 1562.
"Field capacity" means the amount of water remaining
							 in a well-drained soil when the downward movement of flow into unsaturated soil
							 has become small or negligible.
"Fire hazard" means the fuel complex defined by
							 kind, arrangement, volume, condition, and location that forms a special threat
							 of ignition and suppression difficulty.
"Fish and wildlife habitat improvement" means the
							 changes made to protect or enhance food, escape, resting, nesting, roost cover,
							 and water supplies for wildlife, or to better water flows and other stream
							 conditions for fish and other aquatic life.
"Foreseeable damage" means the predictable undesired
							 effects of a prescribed burn or its aftermath. These effects include, but are
							 not limited to, damage to structures or other improvements, accelerated erosion
							 and sedimentation, air pollution, loss of soil productivity, and other resource
							 damages.
"Forest land" means the land having at least 10% of
							 the area occupied by tree crowns of any size, or formerly having had such tree
							 cover and not currently zoned for uses incompatible with forest
							 management.
"Geologic hazard area" means the site of
							 "foreseeable damage" from erosion or mass earth movement. Factors to be
							 considered in identification of such areas are precipitation, soil
							 characteristics, slope, vegetation cover and geology, including evidence of
							 previous land sliding and dip of bedding planes or jointing systems.
"Participant" means a person who has entered into a
							 cost sharing contract with the Director.
"Person."
4464(f)
"Prescribed burning or prescribed fire and other
							 hazardous fuel reduction."
4464(e),
4464(a).
"Prevailing costs" means the values of supplies,
							 material and the pay rental rates for services and equipment that are approved
							 by the Board for use by the Director in estimating and computing the cost of
							 completing a prescribed burning or other hazardous fuels reduction
							 project.
"Program" means all the Director's activities
							 relating to the selection, planning, operations, and administration of
							 vegetation management projects.
"Project" means all work necessary to complete the
							 planning, prescription development, preparation of the site or sites, and to
							 complete the prescribed burning or other hazardous fuels reduction treatment of
							 wildlands.
"Project manager" means the designated officer of
							 the Department responsible for working with landowners, preparing prescribed
							 burning or other hazardous fuels reduction plans, determining cost-share
							 ratios, preparing and administering agreements providing leadership of
							 interagency planning to satisfy environmental requirements, and evaluating the
							 results to determine project effectiveness.
"Public benefit" means the improvement in overall
							 welfare resulting from an intentional change in the vegetative cover. Public
							 benefits from vegetation management include reduction of fire hazards, breaking
							 fire/flood cycles, increasing water yields for any beneficial use, improving
							 food and cover for wildlife, increasing forage production for domestic
							 livestock, protection of forests, enhanced esthetics, improving of air quality
							 and recreation potential.
"Rangeland" means the land on which the existing
							 vegetation, whether growing naturally or through management, is suitable for
							 grazing and browsing. "Rangeland" includes any natural grasslands, savannas,
							 shrublands, deserts, woodlands, and wetlands which support a vegetative cover
							 of native grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, shrubs, or naturalized species.
							 "Rangeland" is land that is dominated by vegetation other than trees. Many
							 woodlands (including Eastside ponderosa pine, pinyon, juniper, chaparral, and
							 oak woodlands) are included in "rangelands" because their response to range
							 management principles and activities are similar to those of other shrubby
							 ecosystems.
"Riparian vegetation" means the plant species
							 normally found growing on the moist edges of streams and some lakes. These
							 plants normally have high water-use requirements and usually are incapable of
							 growing on dry hill slopes where they do not have a moisture supply other than
							 residual soil moisture. Typical species include cottonwoods
							 (
Populus
Spp.), sycamores (
Platanus
Spp.),
							 willows (
Salix
Spp.) bay or pepperwood (
Umbellularia
							 californica
), and alders (
Alnu
s Spp.).
"Site preparation" means the action taken to prepare
							 an area to be burned under prescription. Such preparation may consist of
							 securing control points, providing access for equipment, building temporary
							 firelines and providing water sources.
"Smoke management" means the process of conducting a
							 prescribed burn under specified fuel moisture and meteorological conditions,
							 and using firing techniques that keep the smoke's impact upon the environment
							 within acceptable limits.
"Smoke sensitive areas" means a populated area, an
							 airport, a traveled road or highway, areas designated Class I for visibility
							 standards, or any place where smoke can adversely effect the public health and
							 welfare.
"Snag" means a standing dead tree or a standing
							 section thereof, regardless of species.
"Species diversity" means the variety or number of
							 different plant or animal species in an area.
"State Responsibility Area."
4125-4128
"Vegetation management" means the planned
							 manipulation of living and dead vegetation to achieve desired results and
							 objectives.
"Watercourse" means any well-defined channel with
							 distinguishable bed and bank showing evidence of having contained flowing water
							 indicated by deposit of rock, sand, gravel or soil.
"Watercourse and lake protection zone."
14 CAC 912,
932, 952
"Watershed management" means the protection or
							 enhancement of vegetative cover to provide optimum water yields, to protect
							 water quality, and to minimize soil erosion, flood peaks and downstream
							 sediment damage.
"Wet meadows, marshes, and other wet areas" means
							 those natural areas, except cutover lands as defined in PRC 4522.5, that are
							 moist on the surface throughout most of the year and support aquatic
							 vegetation, grasses, or forbs.
"Wildland."
4464(f)
"Wildland fuel."
4464(h)
"Windrow" means plant material and/or debris that
							 has been mechanically or hand-piled into long, continuous rows.
"Zone" means the land use zone designated by the
							 county where the project is taking or will take place.
1. Amendment
					 of section and NOTE filed 10-27-2009; operative 11-26-2009 (Register 2009, No.
					 44).
Note: Authority cited: Section
						4475.5(b),
						Public Resources Code. Reference: Sections
						4475,
						4475.5
						and
						4476,
						Public Resources Code.