The Mirage Trail within the Magnesia Spring Ecological Reserve shall be open nine months of the year during the months of May to January, inclusive, and closed for three months during the months of February to April, inclusive, to recreational hiking if the commission determines that all of the following conditions are met:

(a) Local public agencies or other nonstate entities will assume complete financial responsibility for the following as determined to be necessary by the commission:

(1) Fencing to dissuade hikers from traversing beyond the trail and into sensitive Peninsular bighorn sheep habitat.

(2) Signage and educational materials to educate hikers about Peninsular bighorn sheep.

(b) A single entity has been designated to fulfill the financial arrangements and other terms and conditions determined by the commission to be necessary pursuant to subdivision (a).

(c) The entity designated pursuant to subdivision (b) has committed to expend at least one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) by January 1, 2018, to monitor the Peninsular bighorn sheep, consistent with the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.

(d) The commission shall, beginning January 1, 2020, and by January 1 every two years thereafter, at a public hearing, assess compliance with the requirements of this section and post its findings and any recommendations on its Internet Web site.

(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that is enacted before January 1, 2028, deletes or extends that date.

(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 315, Sec. 1. (AB 661) Effective January 1, 2018. Repealed as of January 1, 2028, by its own provisions.)