We are forwarding this sign on request from Pacific Forest Trust. This letter would urge the administration to proceed with the May WCB meeting. Over forty projects are set to be voted on, and the meeting will leverage more than $100 million in matching funds. The Department of Finance has issued a freeze on one-time general fund expenditures, endangering many of the WCB projects.
A recent letter from the Department of Finance halts certain broad categories of expenditures and threatens to derail the May 23 meeting of the Wildlife Conservation Board. This meeting has been publicly noticed for weeks, leverages over $100 million in matching funds, and includes dozens of conservation, restoration, education, and equity/engagement projects throughout the state. It would be massively disruptive and threaten the very viability of some of these projects if this meeting were not to go forward.
The linked sign-on letter urges the Administration to move forward with this meeting to avoid unnecessarily undermining the years of effort to bring these projects to fruition. Please sign on via THIS GOOGLE FORM by 10am Monday morning, May 6.
The preliminary agenda is HERE – please join us in helping to save these great projects! The text of the letter is pasted below.
RE: Proceed with Wildlife Conservation Board meeting on May 23, 2023
Dear Governor Newsom,
We write to urge your Administration to move forward with funding the projects noticed for action at the May 23rd Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) meeting. This meeting has been publicly noticed for weeks and is the final critical step for over 40 projects around California that will help the state meet your bold goals for conservation, climate mitigation, biodiversity protection, and achieving more equitable access to nature. Derailing this meeting at the last minute would inflict entirely avoidable harm on state efforts to meet these essential goals.
Your Administration has been a global leader on conservation and natural resource issues, from addressing threats to biodiversity by establishing a goal of conserving 30% of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030, to the targets for climate mitigation and adaptation through natural and working land released last month on Earth Day. These and other goals and frameworks chart a positive path to restoring a better relationship with a healthier world, but these aspirations must be matched with action.
We are concerned that the recent guidance from the Department of Finance to halt expenditures of certain funds could impact the funding for projects on the WCB’s May agenda. We expect the Administration to exercise discretion and nuance in allowing some funding actions to proceed, but we must emphasize that derailing the pending meeting at this very late date would be seizing defeat from the jaws of victory.
The May 23rd meeting represents the final action on dozens of projects that have been many years in the making. These projects are complicated, with landowner agreements that have terms and expiration dates, and bring many millions of dollars in matching funds from federal, philanthropic, local governments, and other sources that can be jeopardized by a sudden suspension of the meeting. Again, this agenda has been publicly noticed for weeks and this meeting is the final necessary action for a myriad of conservation, restoration, education, equity, and engagement projects around the state.
We thank you for your commitment to elevating the role of nature – and access to nature – in your Administration. And we ask that you ensure that the May 23rd meeting of the Wildlife Conservation Board proceeds as planned, and funding is provided accordingly for all noticed projects.
Yours,