5093.50-5093.70
PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE
SECTION 5093.50-5093.70
5093.50. It is the policy of the State of California that certain rivers which possess extraordinary scenic, recreational, fishery, or wildlife values shall be preserved in their free-flowing state, together with their immediate environments, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the state. The Legislature declares that such use of these rivers is the highest and most beneficial use and is a reasonable and beneficial use of water within the meaning of Section 2 of Article X of the California Constitution. It is the purpose of this chapter to create a California Wild and Scenic Rivers System to be administered in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. 5093.51. This chapter shall be known as the California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. 5093.52. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the following meaning: (a) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Resources Agency. (b) "Resources Agency" means the Secretary of the Resources Agency and any constituent units of the Resources Agency that the secretary determines to be necessary to accomplish the purposes of this chapter. (c) "River" means the water, bed, and shoreline of rivers, streams, channels, lakes, bays, estuaries, marshes, wetlands, and lagoons, up to the first line of permanently established riparian vegetation. (d) "Free-flowing" means existing or flowing without artificial impoundment, diversion, or other modification of the river. The presence of low dams, diversion works, and other minor structures does not automatically bar a river's inclusion within the system. However, this subdivision does not authorize or encourage future construction of those structures on any component of the system. (e) "System" means the California Wild and Scenic Rivers System. (f) "Land use regulation" means the regulation by any state or local governmental entity, agency, or official of any activities that take place other than directly on the waters of the segments of the rivers designated in Section 5093.54. (g) "Director" means the Director of Fish and Game. (h) "Immediate environments" means the land immediately adjacent to the segments of the rivers designated in Section 5093.54. (i) "Special treatment areas" means, for purposes of this chapter, those areas defined as special treatment areas in Section 895.1 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, as in effect on January 1, 2004, as that definition applies to wild and scenic river segments designated from time to time in Section 5093.54, and also includes areas within 200 feet of the watercourse transition line of a state-designated recreational river segment designated in Section 5093.54 that may be at risk during timber operations. (j) "Board" means the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. 5093.53. Those rivers or segments of rivers included in the system shall be classified as one of the following: (a) Wild rivers, which are those rivers or segments of rivers that are free of impoundments and generally inaccessible except by trail, with watersheds or shorelines essentially primitive and waters unpolluted. (b) Scenic rivers, which are those rivers or segments of rivers that are free of impoundments, with shorelines or watersheds still largely primitive and shorelines largely undeveloped, but accessible in places by roads. (c) Recreational rivers, which are those rivers or segments of rivers that are readily accessible by road or railroad, that may have some development along their shorelines, and that may have undergone some impoundment or diversion in the past. 5093.54. The following rivers and segments thereof are designated as components of the system: (a) Klamath River. The main stem from 100 yards below Iron Gate Dam to the Pacific Ocean; the Scott River from the mouth of Shackleford Creek west of Fort Jones to the river mouth near Hamburg; the Salmon River from Cecilville Bridge to the river mouth near Somesbar; the North Fork of the Salmon River from the intersection of the river with the south boundary of the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area to the river mouth; Wooley Creek from the western boundary of the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area to its confluence with the Salmon River. (b) Trinity River. The main stem from 100 yards below Lewiston Dam to the river mouth at Weitchpec; the North Fork of the Trinity from the intersection of the river with the southern boundary of the Salmon-Trinity Primitive Area downstream to the river mouth at Helena; New River from the intersection of the river with the southern boundary of the Salmon-Trinity Primitive Area downstream to the river mouth near Burnt Ranch; South Fork of the Trinity from the junction of the river with State Highway Route 36 to the river mouth near Salver. (c) Smith River. The main stem from the confluence of the Middle and South Forks to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean; the Middle Fork from its source about three miles south of Sanger Lake as depicted on 1956 USGS 15