YOUR DUES DOLLARS AT WORK SACRAMENTO HAPPENINGS
CCA LOBBYING FOR BEEF PRODUCER INTERESTS by CCA Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur Cattlemen at the Capitol At the conclusion of the 43rd annual CCA Steak & Eggs Breakfast on March 13, cattlemen made the three-block trek from the Sutter Club to the Capitol Annex Swing Space, the temporary home of legislative offices while the State Capitol building undergoes construction. Ranchers came prepared to educate their representatives about the benefits of cattle ranching and to lobby in favor of two of CCA’s priorities: Budget funding for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program and support for Senate Bill 1101 (Limón), which seeks to streamline CAL FIRE’s application of good fire on the landscape. For readers who were unable to get away from the ranch to join the lobby day, below is an update on each of those priorities and a recap of ranchers’ recent lobbying efforts in Sacramento. Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program Funding To help offset the economic burden borne by ranchers since gray wolves began to settle within the state, the Budget Act of 2021 established a Wolf-Livestock Compensation Pilot Program administered by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The legislation specifically directed the Department to develop a threepronged program that would compensate ranchers for direct loss of livestock to wolves, reimburse producers for their voluntary efforts to implement non-lethal deterrents and offset the economic impacts of wolf presence on livestock herds. The first two prongs of the program were implemented shortly after the Budget Act was finalized in September of 2021. Under the Direct Loss prong of the program, ranchers can be compensated at fair market value for any livestock deaths that CDFW determines were confirmed or probable depredations by wolves. Through the Nonlethal Deterrents prong, ranchers can apply to be reimbursed for the costs of implementing deterrents intended to haze wolves away from livestock, including ‘turbofladry’ and range riders. The third prong of the program, Pay for Presence, didn’t roll out until mid-2023 after an extensive public process. Through the Pay for Presence program, ranchers whose livestock operations are within an “Area of Known Wolf Activity” can apply to be compensated for the financial impacts of wolf presence using 12 California Cattleman April 2024
a formula developed by the Department. Presence impacts include depredation losses which cannot be confirmed (and indeed may never be discovered) and stress impacts, such as increased abortion rates and decreased weight gains. The Program was seeded with one-time funding of $3 million to be available until June 30, 2026, or until the funds appropriated for the pilot program were fully encumbered. Unfortunately, the department announced on Jan. 12 – two days after Governor Newsom released his Proposed Budget – that the fund had been fully encumbered. CCA has made funding the program a top priority for 2024 – a particular challenge in a Budget year in which the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office projects a deficit of $73 billion. A key first step in advocating for additional funding was to demonstrate that the Compensation Program enjoys broad appeal and isn’t merely a cattlemen’s issue. To that end, CCA has partnered with Defenders of Wildlife, which favors the program because it seeks to reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock (thereby protecting wolves), and it helps to increase tolerance for wolves in impacted communities. When legislators see that the program is supported by ranchers and wolf conservationists alike, it lends credence to the notion that it’s a program worth sustaining. CCA, Defenders and the California Farm Bureau initially targeted 17 legislators whose districts have been traveled by wolves in recent years (including OR-93, which traversed the Central Coast and made it as far south as Ventura County in 2021) or which were identified as potentially suitable wolf habitat in the Department’s 2015 Wolf Conservation Plan. While CCA had initially requested $15 million over five years in a February letter to the Newsom Administration, conversations with these lawmakers revealed that another onetime appropriation of $3 million would be more palatable in the Capitol. Working with these legislators, CCA was able ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 14