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The Cutting Green Tape initiative accelerates the pace and scale of habitat restoration by streamlining and improving government processes. It is a longstanding priority for restoration and conservation communities that has become more important than ever amidst climate change and global biodiversity loss.

For decades, communities, conservation organizations, and public agencies have been stymied by barriers that slow or hinder beneficial restoration activities. In 2019, the California Landscape Stewardship Network and the Administration of Governor Gavin Newsom joined together to take action and reduce or eliminate these barriers. In October 2020, Governor Newsom elevated this priority, directing state agencies through Executive Order to “implement actions to increase the pace and scale of environmental restoration and land management efforts by streamlining the State's process to approve and facilitate these projects.”

The Cutting Green Tape initiative started by bringing together a wide range of agencies and practitioners through in-person workshops to identify challenges to restoration delivery and generate suggested improvements. This effort culminated in a report in November 2020 called Cutting Green Tape: Regulatory Efficiencies for a Resilient Environment, which outlined a set of Cutting Green Tape recommendations. In response, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot issued an Implementation Memorandum in January 2021 that directed entities within the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) to take immediate steps to cut green tape.

This report highlights progress in response to Secretary Crowfoot’s directives. It focuses on actions within CNRA and its boards, conservancies, commissions, councils, and departments to implement Cutting Green Tape, which are part of a broader set of improvements underway across other state agencies and nonstate governmental partners.

Notes from the February 12, 2020 Cutting Green Tape roundtable meeting. 

Table of proposed action items and associated themes, tactical approaches, durations, and guidance. Note: This document is a work in progress and will be regularly updated. Current version dated 2/12/20.

156 photos of planning activities, California landscapes, wildlife, and more. (PDF, 37.4 MB)

February 12, 2020
10:00am-3:00pm
California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento CA

Meeting Goals

1. Introduce CGT Initiative, including process and timeline, as one of Secretary Crowfoot’s 4 pillars in partnership with other state agencies.
2. Develop and identify specific recommendations, tactics, mechanisms, and next steps to advance potential actions for increasing regulatory efficiencies.
3. Obtain input on the development of a white paper, to be completed by Earth Day, that identifies actionable and achievable outcomes for increasing regulatory efficiencies for natural resource stewardship.

January 6, 2020
10:00am-3:00pm
Putah Creek Lodge, Davis CA

Meeting Goals

1. Introduce Cutting Green Tape as one of Secretary Crowfoot’s four pillars and build shared vision for this effort.
2. Establish approach to advance this vision, including broad process and timeline.
3. Establish goals and conditions for collaboration that will result in transformational yet feasible recommendations by Earth Day to achieve permitting efficiencies and other improvements.

This paper is a celebration of the many efforts the state has already undertaken to advance collaborative landscape stewardship. Innovative and forward-looking state efforts have inspired the California Landscape Stewardship Network (CA Network) to look ahead in partnership with the state, and explore ways we can work together to advance collaborative landscape scale approaches even further.

Meeting Goals

1. Introduce Cutting the Green Tape as one of Secretary Crowfoot’s four pillars and build shared vision for this effort.
2. Establish approach to advance this vision, including broad process and timeline.
3. Establish goals and conditions for collaboration that will result in transformational yet feasible recommendations by Earth Day to achieve permitting efficiencies and other improvements.

The Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI) is a partnership among the
USDA Forest Service, California Tahoe Conservancy, Sierra Nevada
Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, National Forest Foundation,
California Forestry Association, and University of California Sagehen
Creek Field Station, and eight forest collaboratives. TCSI partners are
accelerating the restoration of forest and watershed resilience
through innovative planning, investment, and management across
the 2.4-million-acre landscape.

This document was adapted from a product developed in 2020 for
the Sierra Nevada Conservancy for the TCSI and funded by the
California Climate Investments

Invasive plants don’t see our property lines. The five partners that make up Marin County’s One Tam partnership know this, and they teamed up to create an Early Detection Rapid Response (EDRR) program tasked with identifying and managing weeds spanning the jurisdictions on Mt. Tamalpais. The EDRR team released this full report on its work from the first survey cycle, offering deep analysis of survey efforts and offering detailed strategies for addressing the mountain’s most formidable weeds. The early detection work is a cornerstone to One Tam’s efforts to protect the mountain’s iconic landscapes, and the plants and animals that call them home.