SECTIONS 2700-2702 - California Statutes

FISH AND GAME CODE

SECTION 2700-2702

2700. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Wildlife
and Natural Areas Conservation Act.

2701. (a) The fundamental requirement for healthy, vigorous
populations of fish and wildlife is habitat. Without adequate
habitat, efforts to conserve and manage fish and wildlife resources
will have limited success. Further, California contains the greatest
diversity of wildlife and plant species of virtually any state in the
nation. This rich natural heritage enables Californians to enjoy a
great variety of recreational, aesthetic, ecological, and other uses
and benefits of these biological resources. The public interest is
served only by ensuring that these resources are preserved,
protected, and propagated for this and future generations.
(b) Many of California's wildlife, fish, and plant species and
biological communities are found nowhere else on earth. Without
adequate protection and management, rare native species and
communities could easily become extinct. In such an event, the
benefits they provide to the people of California, whether presently
realized or which remain to be discovered, will be lost forever, and
California will be significantly poorer as a result.
(c) The people of California have vested in the Department of Fish
and Game the principal responsibility for protecting, conserving,
and perpetuating native fish, plants, and wildlife, including
endangered species and game animals, for their aesthetic, instrinsic,
ecological, educational, and economic values. To help accomplish
this goal, the people of California have further established a
significant natural areas program and a natural diversity data base
in the Department of Fish and Game, which is charged with maintaining
and perpetuating California's most significant natural areas for
present and future generations. To ensure the perpetuation of areas
containing uncommon elements of natural diversity and to ensure the
continued abundance of habitat for more common species, especially
examples of those which are presently threatened with destruction,
the purchase of land is often necessary.
(d) Accordingly, the purpose of this chapter is to provide the
Wildlife Conservation Board and the Department of Fish and Game the
financial means to correct the most severe deficiencies in wildlife
habitat and in the statewide system of areas designated for the
preservation of California's natural diversity through a program of
acquisition, enhancement, restoration, and protection of areas that
are most in need of proper conservation.

2702. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(a) "Acquisition" means the acquiring of any interest in real
property.
(b) "Fund" means the Wildlife and Natural Areas Conservation Fund
created pursuant to Section 2720.
(c) "Highly rare" means a worldwide rarity in which any species or
natural community occurs in 50 or fewer locations, irrespective of
whether the species or any species in the community is listed as
threatened or endangered or was previously listed as rare.
(d) "Natural community" means a distinct, identifiable, and
recurring association of plants and animals that are ecologically
interrelated.
(e) "Species" means the fundamental biological unit of plant and
animal classification that comprises a subdivision of a genus, but
for the purposes of this chapter, "species" also includes the unit of
a subspecies.