Please join us for a discussion on February 3, 2021  at 11:00 with Kellyx Nelson and Jim Robins about the Cutting Green Tape initiative and why it is needed to protect our natural resources.

Ms. Nelson and Mr. Robins are two of the lead authors of the Cutting Green Tape: Regulatory Efficiencies for a Resilient Environment report (November 2020) and will discuss the need for changes in our regulatory processes and present the recommendations in the report. Following the presentation, there will be time available for questions and discussion with the audience.

Kellyx Nelson, Executive Director of the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District, has spent nearly 30 years in non-profits, government, and the private sector developing, implementing, and assessing programs and partnerships for environmental benefit and other public good.

Jim Robins, Principal of Alnus Ecological, has extensive experience in resource management and conservation planning, riparian and stream ecology, wetland ecology, land-use policy and environmental compliance, as well as management of large-scale environmental projects.

To ensure ecosystem resilience—the ability to recover from catastrophic events and respond to changing climatic conditions—we need large-scale restoration to reestablish and rebuild altered natural systems. However, current regulatory processes are too slow, costly, and burdensome to effectively respond to these challenges. Sometimes, fully one-third of public funding for a restoration project goes to planning and permitting, and a project that only takes weeks to implement can take years to permit.

The State of California has identified “Cutting Green Tape” as a signature initiative to increase the pace and scale of environmental restoration. California has a proud tradition of strong laws that protect our environment from the effects of development and resource extraction. Unfortunately, projects that are beneficial to the environment can be slowed by the same processes and procedures that are designed to protect it. Cutting Green Tape seeks to remedy this problem.

Complex and overlapping permitting processes can result in fewer and smaller actions being taken at a slower pace and a greater expense. Much like the familiar term, “red tape,” “green tape” represents the extra time, money, and effort required to get environmentally beneficial work done because of inefficiencies in our current systems. Cutting Green Tape means improving regulatory processes and policies so that this work can occur more quickly, simply, and cost-effectively.