SECTIONS 2780-2781 - California Statutes

FISH AND GAME CODE

SECTION 2780-2781

2780. The people of California find and declare all of the
following:
(a) Protection, enhancement, and restoration of wildlife habitat
and fisheries are vital to maintaining the quality of life in
California. As the state's human population increases, there is an
urgent need to protect the rapidly disappearing wildlife habitats
that support California's unique and varied wildlife resources.
(b) Much of the state's most important deer winter ranges have
been destroyed in the last 20 years.
(c) Critical winter ranges of migratory deer in the Sierra Nevada
and Cascade mountain ranges are increasingly subject to incompatible
land uses. In some counties, over 80 percent of the critical winter
ranges fall on these lands. The potential for incompatible land uses
on these lands is a major threat to the survival of many migratory
deer herds.
(d) Deer, mountain lion, and other wildlife habitat within the
Sierra Nevada, Cascade, Coast Range (including the Santa Lucia
Mountains in Monterey County along the Central Coast), Siskiyou and
Klamath Mountains; and the Santa Susana, Simi Hills, Santa Monica,
San Gabriel, San Bernardino, San Jacinto, Santa Ana and other
mountains and foothill areas within southern California, is
disappearing rapidly. Small and often isolated wildlife populations
are forced to depend upon these shrinking habitat areas within the
heavily urbanizing areas of this state. Corridors of natural habitat
must be preserved to maintain the genetic integrity of California's
wildlife.
(e) This chapter shall be implemented in the most expeditious
manner. All state officials shall implement this chapter to the
fullest extent of their authority in order to preserve, maintain, and
enhance California's diverse wildlife heritage and the habitats upon
which it depends.

2781. The people of California find and declare that wildlife and
fisheries conservation is in the public interest and that it is
necessary to keep certain lands in open space and natural condition
to protect sigificant environmental values of wildlife and native
plant habitat, riparian and wetland areas, native oak woodlands, and
other open-space lands, and to provide opportunities for the people
of California to appreciate and visit natural environments and enjoy
California's unique and varied fish and wildlife resources.
It is the intent of the people, in enacting this chapter, that
additional funds are needed to protect fish, wildlife, and native
plant resources and that the Legislature should provide those funds
through bond acts and other appropriate sources.