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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - Agricultural Commissioner Thomas A. Moss
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Requested Action(s)
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a) AGREEMENT - Request approval and authorization for the chair to sign the Data Sharing and Confidentiality Agreement with California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) allowing the County to receive confidential gray wolf GPS collar location data from CDFW for use in livestock-protection, depredation-response, and wolf-conservation activities, effective upon date of final signature and shall terminate 12/31/27
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Financial Impact:
There is no financial impact associated with this Agreement.
Background Information:
The Department is seeking approval of a Data Sharing and Confidentiality Agreement with California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) that allows the County to receive confidential gray wolf GPS-collar location data. CDFW manages the State and federally endangered gray wolf, and “tracking collar information is confidential and exempt from mandatory disclosure under the CPRA.” The Agreement is authorized under Government Code section 7921.505(c)(5), which permits inter-agency sharing without waiving confidentiality.
The data will help the County minimize wolf-livestock conflicts, conduct depredation investigations, and support wolf conservation. As stated in Section 1, the purpose is “to facilitate Gray Wolf recovery by minimizing wolf-livestock conflicts and understanding potential wolf depredations, behavior, distribution and abundance in COUNTY.”
The County will receive read-only access to CDFW’s wolf GPS collar data platform and may not download or store data except for limited conflict-prevention communications with livestock producers. Strict confidentiality, security, and CPRA-notification requirements apply, and CDFW retains ownership of all data.
The Agreement is effective upon signature through December 31, 2027, unless terminated earlier. Board approval authorizes the County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office to access the data and carry out the responsibilities described.