As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise, the following

definitions apply: (a) “Board” means the Wildlife Conservation Board. (b) “Department” means the Department of Fish and Wildlife. (c) “Local public agency” includes, but is not limited to, a city, county, city and county, association of governments, or joint powers authority. (d) “Nonprofit organization” means any private, nonprofit organization that qualifies for exempt status under

Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and has among its principal charitable purposes the preservation of real property for scientific, historic, educational, recreational, scenic, or open-space values, the protection of the natural environment, or the preservation and enhancement of fisheries and wildlife or their habitat. (e) “Program” means the California Desert Conservation Program. (f) “Region” or “California deserts region” includes the portions of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, across 26,000,000 acres of southeastern California lying within the Counties of Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Mono, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego that is within the California Desert Conservation Area as that area was delineated in the map and legal description of the California Desert Conservation Area prepared by the United States Secretary of the Interior pursuant to

Section 1781(

c) of Title of the United States Code, as that map and legal description was in effect on December 31, 2020, and the portions of the Bureau of Land Management’s Bakersfield and Bishop Resource Management Plans, as amended by the Record of Decision, dated September 14, 2016, of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan Land Use Plan Amendment. The Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy area, as described in

Section of the Public Resources Code, shall be excluded from, and is not part of, the California deserts region. (g) “Tribe” means any federally recognized Native American tribe or a nonfederally recognized Native American tribe listed on the California Tribal Consultation List maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission.