AB 573

Under current law, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) administers

a financial assistance program under which it awards cost-sharing grants to public

and private entities for projects to control invasive species that cause economic or

environmental harm or harm to human health. Under current administrative rules,

these entities include lake districts, certain lake associations, and nonprofit

conservation organizations. Moneys for these grants are appropriated from the

conservation fund.

Under current law, the state may incur public debt by issuing bonds for certain

conservation activities under the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship

2000 Program, which DNR administers. The state is currently authorized to bond

under two of the program's subprograms: the land acquisition subprogram and the

property development and local assistance subprogram. Bonding under the property

development and local assistance subprogram may generally be used only for

nature-based outdoor recreation. This bill allows DNR to use stewardship bonding

for these cost-sharing grants to control invasive species for nature-based outdoor

recreation purposes.