CA AB2875

Adds Chapter 28 to the Water Code establishing the California Wetlands Policy Act, codifying state policy to ensure no net loss and long-term gain in the quantity, quality, and permanence of wetlands acreage and values.

Makes legislative findings that California's wetlands have been reduced to 10 percent of their original extent, with 95 percent of coastal wetlands destroyed, and provide critical benefits including flood risk reduction, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, and water filtration.

Notes that the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Sackett v. EPA excluded many state waters and wetlands from federal Clean Water Act protection, requiring California to independently protect its remaining wetlands.

References the state's 2019 adoption of wetland protection policies and Governor Wilson's 1993 Executive Order establishing the goal of no net loss and long-term gain of wetlands.

States that the no net loss and long-term gain policy will be measured on multiple scales rather than on a permit-by-permit basis, requiring thoughtful project design, conservation, restoration, and landscape-scale planning.