AB 2494 Update

July 1st, 2026

On July 1, 2026, the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee voted to pass AB 2494 (Rogers) with a 5 - 2 partisan split. AB 2494 seeks to change the management priorities for

demonstration forests across the state by requiring management activities and research on these forests to demonstrate public benefits such as wildfire resilience and biodiversity conservation rather than commercial timber harvest. The bill would also require CAL FIRE to seek co-management agreements with tribes for management of these forests. These changes would bring demonstration forests in line with the state’s goals to conserve 30% of California’s lands and waters by 2030 and to bring 7.5 million acres of California’s lands and waters into tribal stewardship. The full text of the bill is available here, with recent amendments made before the Committee hearing. 

Lead testimony for the bill included Buffie Campbell, Executive Director for the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, and Melodie Meyer, Conservation Attorney for the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC). Buffie shared powerful insights in her opening statement: “The founder of the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Priscilla Hunter, once said, ‘Our view of a sustainable forest is a forest that sustains our culture, our values, our way of life - not one that is managed to cut trees for profit.’ This bill is a step towards reparations for the removal of Native people from our homelands.” Bill author Assemblymember Chris Rogers' statements stressed the overdue nature of the update that the bill provides: “The forest laws have not caught up over the past 80 years to [reflect] where we want to go…this bill makes sure that the maximum sustained production piece, which is the driving piece in current law, is not the focus and that we utilize our lands for the other public benefits like recreation, research, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity.” You can view the full hearing by clicking “watch” next to the July 1st recording of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee at this time stamped link.

The bill will be heard next by the Senate Appropriations Committee in August, then will go to a floor vote for the entire Senate, and then finally to the Governor’s office for signing. 

Thank you for all your support in getting this bill to where it is today! Please sign EPIC’s petition in support of AB 2494 if you have not done so already. If your organization is interested in sending a letter of support in favor of AB 2494 please send it to josefina@wildcalifornia.org and we will submit it on your behalf.