Relative to public lands.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Dawn Addis and 5 co-sponsors

AJR 34 affirms federal stewardship of national public lands and protects public participation processes, urging California leaders to defend these safeguards.

From printer.

#publiclands

Summary of AJR 34 (2025-2026) — Relative to public lands

Purpose and intent

AJR 34 declares support for maintaining national public lands under the stewardship of the United States government and federal land management agencies. It affirms the importance of foundational public processes that guide the sustainable use of these lands and opposes any efforts that would diminish the public’s voice, access, or recourse in the management and use of national public lands. The measure calls on California’s elected officials to defend these public processes and safeguards to ensure lands remain under federal stewardship for the American people and managed for the broadest possible public benefit.

Key provisions and changes

Declaration of support: Affirms that national public lands should remain under federal stewardship and managed by federal land management agencies.

Protection of public processes: Reaffirms commitment to established public processes that guide sustainable use and management of public lands.

Opposition to restricting public involvement: Opposes efforts that would reduce the public’s voice, access, or recourse in deciding how public lands are used and managed.

Calls to action for state leaders: Urges California’s congressional delegation, the Governor, and the Attorney General to take all necessary actions to defend public processes and statutory safeguards related to national public lands.

Who or what would be affected

Public lands policy and management: Reinforces a stance favoring federal stewardship and existing public governance processes.

State leadership actions: Encourages and directs California's top officials to actively defend public processes and safeguards at the federal level.

Public participation mechanisms: Emphasizes protection of avenues through which the public can influence land use decisions.

Procedural and timeline aspects

Status: In progress; introduced on 2026-07-02 and sent to print on 2026-07-03.

Legislative path: As an Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR), it functions as a formal expression of state legislative stance rather than a bill that would directly impose state-law requirements. It signals the Legislature’s position and requests action from federal and state officials, potentially influencing advocacy and messaging rather than implementing policy changes within California law.

Sponsors: Includes multiple co-sponsors (Greg Wallis, Gregg Hart, Rick Zbur, Chris Rogers, Robert Garcia, Dawn Addis).

Potential impact and considerations

Political and rhetorical impact: Signals broad bipartisan or cross-faction support for federal stewardship of public lands and opposition to efforts that would constrain public involvement.

Influence on federal-state dynamics: May shape California’s advocacy strategy before federal agencies and Congress, as well as coordination with the Governor and Attorney General on public-lands issues.

Public access and governance: Aims to protect mechanisms that ensure the public can participate in decisions about national public lands, potentially affecting future land-use proposals or reforms at the federal level.

If you’d like, I can add a brief comparison to similar resolutions in other states or provide a plain-language FAQ for readers.