Cal. PRC § 8502
This is the official text of Cal. PRC § 8502, part of California’s Public Resources Code — covers environmental protection, state parks, and natural resource management.
Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.
Official statutory text
It is unlawful to graze livestock on any part of the unreserved and unappropriated public lands of the United States in this State when such grazing will or does prevent, restrict or interfere with the customary use of such land for grazing livestock by any person who, by himself or his grantors or predecessors, has become established, either exclusively or in common with others, in the grazing use of such lands under and in accordance with the customs of the graziers of the region involved. This article shall not prohibit the grazing on any part of such public lands of livestock owned, kept or used for work or milking purposes by any ranch owner or bona fide settler, for his domestic use, as distinguished from commercial use, nor prohibit the grazing on such public lands of any livestock necessary for and used in connection with any mining or construction work or other lawful work of similar character.
Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site
Need a lawyer in California?
Find a California lawyer
About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the
Open US Law dataset
(Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine
(Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.