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Comment 11 for Comment Log for Public Workshop on the Natural and Working Lands Sector to Inform the 2030 Target Scoping Plan Update URL: (scoplan2030nwl-ws) - 1st Workshop.


First Name: Norman
Last Name: Groot
Email Address: norm@montereycfb.com
Affiliation: Monterey County Farm Bureau

Subject: Healthy Landscapes 2030
Comment:
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the Healthy
Landscapes 2030: California’s Climate Change Vision and Goals for
Natural and Working Lands. 

Monterey County Farm Bureau represents family farmers and ranchers
in the interest of protecting and promoting agriculture throughout
our County.  We strive to improve the ability of those engaged in
production agriculture to provide a reliable supply of food and
fiber through responsible stewardship of our local resources.

We recognize the importance of adequate planning at the State level
for future contingencies such as climate change.  We support
planning that includes stakeholder involvement and input as part of
any new regulatory process.  

Reading the document provided, we are overwhelmed by the enormity
of the issues and the complexity of the input we are being asked to
provide.  

For example, the following is a list of the laws, policies and
plans mentioned in the Healthy Landscapes 2030 Discussion Paper: 
•	AB 32
•	AB 32 Scoping Plan 
•	Executive Order B-30-15
•	California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
•	Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
•	Safeguarding California: Reducing Climate Risk
•	CARB Climate Change Scoping Plan 
•	Natural and Working Lands 
•	Agricultural Sector Implementation Plan
•	California Five-Year Infrastructure Plan 
•	2030 Target Scoping Plan Update
•	California Water Action Plan State Wildlife Action Plan 
•	County Integrated Regional Watershed Management Plans
•	Sustainable Communities Strategies
•	Regional Advanced Mitigation Plans
•	Natural Community Conservation Plans
•	Habitat Conservation Plans
•	Climate Change Action plans by each respective agency:
o	Natural Resources Agency
o	Department of Parks and Recreation
o	Department of Conservation
o	Department of Fish and Wildlife
o	Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
o	Department of Water Resources 
o	Wildlife Conservation Board
o	State Conservancies (such as the State Coastal Conservancy)
•	2015 Healthy Soils Initiative
•	Climate Smart Agriculture in California (an integrated approach
to both achieving GHG reductions and ensuring food security in the
face of climate change)
•	Comet-Farm and Comet-planner tools that incorporate USDA NRCS
technical guidelines will be valuable resources 
•	Draft Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy

Few landowners in the Monterey area deal with forestry related
issues.  There may be a few private properties with timber, or some
ranchers may have grazing leases on state or federal lands.  If so,
a landowner would also have to take into account these documents
that were mentioned in Healthy Landscapes 2030: 
•	Forestry Climate Action Team
•	California Forest Carbon Plan Concept Paper: Managing our Forest
Landscapes in a Change Climate (draft)
•	Forest Carbon Plan 
•	Tree Mortality Task Force
•	California Strategic Fire Plan
•	Region 5 Forest Service Ecological Restoration Plan
•	National Forest Resource Plans
•	National Park Service Resource Plans
•	BLM Resource Plans
•	California Forest Improvement Program (CAL FIRE) Forest
Stewardship Plans
•	NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program Forest Stewardship
Plans (voluntary)
•	American Tree Farm Program

Additionally, these items noted in the document generate further
questions:
•	Each state Agency shall employ full-life-cycle cost accounting to
evaluate and compare infrastructure investments and alternatives as
part of their climate change planning and investment decisions –
will there be coordination between agencies when developing these
cost reports?  How will this information be shared with, and indeed
vetted, with stakeholders?
•	California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research will
establish a technical, advisory group to help state agencies
incorporate climate change – when will this work product be
available, and how can it be accessed?  
•	Is the California Water Action Plan the same as the California
Water Roadmap for Action?

These are all of the laws, policies, plans, and implementation
tools that were mentioned in Healthy Landscapes 2030 that we would
need to digest before we are able to fully comprehend what the
state is planning.  This makes it extremely difficult to provide
useful and cogent input into the questions outlined on Page 11 of
the Healthy Landscapes 2030: California’s Climate Change Vision and
Goals for Natural and Working Lands.

Also note, Agriculture needs to be aware of climate change plans
that have been written by agencies that were NOT mentioned in the
Healthy Landscapes 2030 document: 
•	Cal-EPA 
•	Department of Pesticide Regulation
•	CARB
•	Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery
•	Department of Toxic Substances
•	Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
•	State Water Resources Control Board
•	Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
•	California Coastal Commission
•	Local climate action plans developed on municipal and county
levels

Finally, please note that farmers and ranchers in the Monterey area
must take into account climate change plans of federal agencies
such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.

Monterey County Farm Bureau is uncertain about the level of
awareness that exists throughout our agricultural community
regarding the quantitative targets that are being developed by the
State as part of the Healthy Landscapes 2030 Scoping Plan Update. 
We suspect that awareness is very low.  Therefore, we propose that
the state slow down and increase the level of outreach and
awareness, providing clarity to the state’s goals.  Finally, the
state needs to incorporate more agricultural community stakeholder
involvement and input into every aspect of the development of
quantitative targets and Land Use Valuation and Co-Benefits.
Currently, it could be said that because of lack of awareness,
quantification goals for measuring, monitoring and reporting are
occurring in a vacuum. 

Involvement of the agricultural community will not be easy or
simple.  Current water and land use regulatory trends, trajectories
and implementations have created, perpetuated and exacerbated
distrust between public, private and non-regulatory governmental
organizational interests in this state.  These regulatory processes
are occupying a significant portion of the bandwidth that farmers
and ranchers have available when not tending to their crops.  The
pressures of continued regulatory intensity are costly and may
ultimately cause the smaller farming operations in our region to
become financially unstable. 

Only through methodical, thoughtful, inclusive, transparent, and
integrative processes will the state be able to move forward on a
solution-oriented path for success. 

Monterey County Farm Bureau fully supports any effort towards cost
analyses; we would welcome a robust review of impacts of state
climate change initiatives on state and local economies.  Full
life-cycle cost accounting would be a great place from which to
engage private interests in a robust and necessary dialog.  We also
would like to see a budgetary review of the government resources
that are being dedicated to climate change and resource protection
of natural and working lands.  

Monterey County Farm Bureau would welcome the opportunity to
provide more input on these issues.  We encourage a more robust
participatory process.  We recognize that there is a lot of work to
do in order to fully understand the issues.  We must begin by
reviewing the figurative and literal mountain of policies, reports
and recommendations that have been created by the state before we
could provide more detailed comment.  We are hopeful that we will
have that opportunity in the future. 

Sincerely,

Norman C. Groot
Executive Director

Attachment:

Original File Name:

Date and Time Comment Was Submitted: 2016-04-06 12:06:22



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