Assembly Standing Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife

Okay, I'm going to gavel in. We're going to start, and I know we'll get our bill's author momentarily. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to WPW 2026. Let's take roll.

[Roll call].

Excellent. Okay, so just so you know, in the interest of transparency, we will be streamed, and the public can come provide testimony in person here in Room 444. I want to say a big welcome to-- that's right, we've got a science fellow, Sean Clair. Welcome, Sean. I wish you much success in your tenure here.

And we're going to have Assembly Member Schiavo. She'll replace Celeste Rodriguez today who might have a good excuse for not being here, hence one pregnancy. But in any event, so we'll wait for Schiavo to come as well, and we just have one agenda update.

AB 892 from Assembly Member Schultz has been pulled from the agenda and will not be heard here today. With that, we will wait for Assembly Member Isaac Bryan to take on his bill. Witnesses will have two or three minutes in support, two or three minutes in opposition, and we'll take questions and we'll go from there. Thank you all for being on time.

Good morning, Assembly Member Bryan. We have already gaveled in, so whenever you're ready, we welcome you and the opportunity to present AB 946, 30 by 30.

Well, thank you, Madam Chair and members. I'm here to present AB 946, which is my first bill of 2026. It encourages the State of California in its land conservation efforts to recognize the importance of making investments in historically underserved urban communities. Understandably, it has often been easier to advance land conservation goals by investing in rural and suburban areas, and we are doing that where land is typically more attainable and affordable for large-scale projects.

However, as the state pursues its 2030 conservation goals, it's also important to invest in conservation within highly urbanized, historically underserved communities. Bringing nature closer to where people live and work, restoring and greening urban spaces wherever possible should stand as a co-equal goal, and this bill affirms our shared commitment to both visions.

This bill seeks to elevate the awareness around the importance of continued investment in reducing nature poverty in our urban areas, like my home, South Los Angeles. With me today to speak in support of the bill is Doug Houston, representing the California Park and Recreation Society.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thanks, Madam Chair and members. I'll be very, very brief. So, I'm Doug Houston. I'm representing the 5,000 plus superheroes that are your local park professionals throughout all your communities within the State of California, and we're respectfully asking for your support of this bill.

If I could just interrupt you for a minute. Are these mics on? Do you know?

Can you not hear me?

Yeah, you sound a little faint. I mean, let's just-- we want to hear every word.

I'm very soft spoken.

Shy and retiring.

All right. So building off of the author's comments, this is an important bill in that it asks policymakers consider viewing California's 30 by 30 program through a little bit more expansive lens, enhancing state investment that not only provides conservation benefit, but serves human utility as well, so.

And given the scarcity of available lands to meet 30 by 30 objectives, particularly in Southern California, this bill encourages investment practices that restore and enhance the functionality of lands as interventions to promote durable, lasting conservation benefits closer to where Californians live and play, and again, urging your support.

Thank you so much. You have no other witnesses, I'm assuming?

I do not.

Any witnesses in opposition? Okay, we'll take public comment in favor. Good morning.

Good morning, Madam Chair. Rico Mastrodonato with the Trust for Public Land. TPL has been creating urban playgrounds for Californians for 50 years, and this is an incredibly important bill. We did a 400-acre decommissioned oil field in densely populated Orange County a couple years ago.

That property has five endangered species on it, it's within an hour's drive of 10 million people, and those are the kind of opportunities, whether it's golf courses, oil fields--there's one in Inglewood that might provide some opportunities--but this is incredibly important because access to nature starts by making it within walking distance. So I'll leave it at that, and thank you--

Thank you.

--to the author and thank you for the committee.

Mark Isaac Isidro, on behalf of the County of Los Angeles, in support. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I didn't see any witnesses in opposition. Any members of the public in opposition? No. All right, we'll bring it back. Assembly Member Boerner, I can feel that you'd like to say something.

Good morning, and happy 2026. This is an excellent bill. We have to make sure when we do 30 by 30 that we are taking advantage of those opportunities and we're doing it equitably in the state, and I would love to be added as co-author.

Anybody else? Assembly Member Bennett.

I'd like to be added as a co-author as well.

We got a motion second already, but we'll take your third. Anybody else? Anybody else? Assembly Member Tangipa.

Well, good morning and--

Good morning.

It's good to see everybody again. You know, one of the biggest things that I really do respect about you is that you are a warrior for your community. For me personally, especially the language in this bill, it really directs funds towards, specifically, the urban community.

When I represent one of the most rural areas, you know, that's something that I need to prioritize, a lot of the Eastern Sierras. You know, I think about my communities of Tuolumne, Bishop, Mono. They need more prioritization towards them. For me, I'm laying off this bill simply for those reasons.

Some of the areas that I really want to start pushing is for more people to support them, especially with the wildfires that have devastated the communities from the economic lens. I want to prioritize some of these smaller communities, and so the language in this bill really prioritizes heavy urban areas, and I represent both very urban and very rural.

And so, for those reasons, again, Assemblyman, I really do respect how much of a warrior you are for your district, and I've got to do the same thing for mine. So thank you.

Assembly Member Rogers.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. I'm going to respectfully disagree with my colleague. As somebody who also represents one of the most rural districts in the state, I think when we talk about environmental protectionism, it's way easier in some parts of our state that have more land.

And quite frankly, I'm tired of us doing conservation easements that are just buying land from rich people that they're never going to use and calling it good. It's much harder to dedicate those resources in the communities that need it. It's much more impactful and meaningful if it's spread equitably across the state. So I'm proud to support the bill.

Thank you so much. Assembly Member Gonzalez.

I'll ask a question.

I'll have an answer.

First and foremost, thank you to the author for this bill, and as someone who started in the Lower East Side of Manhattan where the the grass that we saw was in a picture or-- and the playgrounds were on top of a building, I completely understand the perspective this has. And going back to those areas, LA, New York, so on, so forth, it's gotten better, but there's still a lot of places where it could get much better. Two-part question.

Number one, when you were doing this bill, what were you, like, dreaming, envisioning, with respect to this so I can kind of understand the heart side of it?

Sure.

And number two, you know, Assemblyman Tangipa has some points. I have to look out for for my district, which is very rural. Does your bill neglect the rural areas, and if it does not, can you just speak to that?

Yeah.

Yeah. No, it does not. In fact, I think all of us have been encouraging advancement in 30 by 30, have done it with a consistent focus towards rural and coastal communities, right? You cannot conserve 30% of California's land and coastline without prioritizing those communities.

To me, this bill is kind of like when we say we need to direct resources where all of the people in California live, and those of us have to remind folks that people live outside of Los Angeles, I think this is the inverse, where we have to remind folks there's a need for parks and green spaces also in Los Angeles and that it doesn't hurt folks in other parts of the state to consider everybody.

And so to me, this is kind of the inverse of the conversations we usually have about where resources should be prioritized. And in those conversations, I'm always consistent that we also have to remember folks live in places outside of my home as well.

Thank you. And can you speak to where this was born from, the--?

For me, it was, thinking about the comments that were made, is that we have the largest urban oil field in the country in my district, the Baldwin Hood's-- Baldwin Hills Inglewood oilfield. It's set to close by 2030. It's 1,600 acres of green space, and it has to be remediated, it has to be cleaned, it has to-- so much has to be done to it.

But it should be thought about in our 30 by 30 goals. We have the largest urban conservancy in the state, the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, right in the heart of South Central Los Angeles and South LA. And I think it's just important to bring green spaces to the hood to conserve-- to conserve indigenous plant species and other urban greenery that is so often destroyed.

It also goes hand in hand with some of our climate problems in urban communities where we suffer from urban heat and other problems at a disproportionate rate because we don't have the greenery, and we don't have the canopies, and we don't have the same kind of environmental protections as other parts of the state. And so it's really just trying to bring parity to all of the people of California.

Thank you. I appreciate that, and I think you made a new shirt, green hoods. So I'll buy that first one. Green hoodies. Sorry. Green hoodies. Sorry. With that-- and thank you for the clarification.

And it's always important for me to understand where this is born from because I don't know what you're-- the lens that you're seeing this from. So that's why I asked the question. And yes, I have-- thank you for your commitment to green spaces everywhere. So with that, I will be supporting this bill.

Thank you, sir.

Assembly Member Bennett.

Just would like to add to the comment, and that is, I don't think you can underestimate the psychological impact of being able to get into green space. When I was growing up in a deteriorating urban center, those opportunities to get to green space was just invaluable. So psychologically, emotionally, for community, it's really valuable.

Anybody else? Assembly Member Caloza.

I just want to thank Assembly Member Bryan for putting this bill forward. This is not a controversial bill. This is a bill that all of us should support. I also represent parts of Los Angeles where a lot of kids and families grow up seeing more concrete and asphalt than they do trees and flowers. And that really has to change.

And so we know that a lot of the health impacts of what it means to be surrounded by a web of freeways and all the things that are happening in dense, urban areas contribute to the health outcomes that we're also dealing with in other committees. And I think that this bill is so important, and I would love to be added as a co-author, so thanks for bringing this forward.

Absolutely.

I don't want to give anybody the opportunity to not be heard. We all good? So I have a couple comments. First of all, I want to thank you for bringing the bill. As we get more and more dense living, and in particular, because we're trying to achieve our housing goals, I think that the need for open space becomes more and more important. And the reuse of space is an idea that we're really going to have to hone in on.

I come from a very suburban, but dense suburban environment, such that land is-- and we're surrounded by water, so we don't have a lot of land, and so when a developer comes and we impose upon them, hey, you need to create a park, but we don't have the land to do it, the reusing of land and the conserving of land that might be there is tremendously important, but then to make it usable so that we do have trails or whatnot.

Now, where I come from, there was a former dump that's along the San Francisco Bay. A beautiful setting. It's amazing to think that's where we put our dumps in the old days. But it is a county park, and I spend a lot of time there, and I do a lot of my best thinking there, so you're welcome for all the legislation that comes out of there when I'm working on. But nonetheless.

And then I would like to point out, like, in San Francisco, the former military base, the Presidio, the feds turned that into a park. Took a lot of doing to make it happen, but it's the largest urban park in the United States, and it's a wonderland, an absolute wonderland.

Again, a very dense space surrounded by water, but to reuse land that we might have--and I know the area you're talking about with the oil wells; I spent a lot of time living in LA. I get it. And as you were talking, I could envision what could be done there. So in any event, I don't have a question. I want to thank you for bringing the bill and give you an opportunity to close. And with that, after that, we'll take a vote.

Thank you. If you go to Crenshaw High School, which is just around the corner from my house, or Dorsey, or Hamilton, and you talk to the kids in the school and you ask them, when was the last time you went to the beach? Kids in LA, many of them will tell you, I've never been to the beach.

You shouldn't be a high school student who's never seen a tree as well. We can do better. We should do better. I want to thank all of the Republicans on the Natural Resource Committee who made this bipartisan and unanimous yesterday, and respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Okay. Thank you, sir. We'll take a vote.

AB 946: motion is do pass to Appropriations. [Roll call].

Well, it looks like you're gonna get out, Assembly Member Bryan. It might be a couple more that trickle in. I'll leave it open. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you to my Committee to be present and accounted for. You're terrific. Good morning, Assembly Member Baines. Good morning, Assembly Member Baines.

We're going to take a vote on the one and only Bill we had today, which was Isaac Bryans.

[Roll Call]

Thank you so much. Have a good day. We are adjourned.