4789.6. (a) The board, assisted by the director, shall biennially determine state needs for forest management research and recommend the conduct of needed projects to the Governor and the Legislature.
(b) To facilitate reporting and updating the assessment pursuant to Section 4789.3, the director, under guidance by the board, may prepare and implement a forest resource management information storage and retrieval program regarding forest land conditions in the state. Such program shall be coordinated and integrated to the maximum extent practicable with data storage and retrieval programs of other state and federal agencies and institutions. The director shall review existing forest resource management storage, retrieval, and analysis systems in the institutions of higher learning in this state, and insofar as the board deems desirable, may utilize such systems as a model for the state program established pursuant to this section.
(c) The director shall, as budgetary resources permit, develop a cost-effective and statistically valid system to periodically monitor the extent to which timberland is, or is becoming, less available for the growing and harvesting of timber due to zoning, onsite development, adjacent land uses, ownership patterns, parcel size, or any other factors.
(Amended by Stats. 1982, Ch. 1489, Sec. 33.)