Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed AB 1902, legislation authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, to update the authority of Resource Conservation Districts to fight climate change.
RCDs were created as special districts in the 1930s to serve as the local connection to state and federal conservation programs in response to the dust bowl. Over the decades, RCDs have evolved into a network of 95 districts across the state to meet the natural resource needs of rural, urban, and suburban communities.
“RCDs are doing incredibly important work, including growing efforts to address climate change,” Aguiar-Curry said in a news release. “In my district, RCDs are reforesting areas hurt by wildfires, supporting water conservation, controlling erosion, managing soil health, and so much more. Many of these RCDs, however, are located in rural communities and have small budgets and few resources to do the work they’re responsible for.
AB 1902 adds a number of conservation activities that RCDs may address, from protecting people, communities, and ecosystems from wildfire, drought, and other disasters wrought by climate change to controlling and eradicating invasive species to providing technical assistance to landowners to enhance the landowners’ knowledge of resilience practices. ■