[Thud]

"This makes no sense to me at all, so I wonder if either the paper is misreading the law, or (probably just as likely) this is the law, however inane it may be."

IMO the press is incapable of reporting accurately on any legal issue more complicated than a jury saying guilty or not guilty.

[Cleburne]

A bit o' looking reveals this buffer zone on ephemeral streams will qualify for those drainages that show permenant scour signs (ie channel washed from the leaves, down a bit into the soil), and would extend the said distance away as a "ripirarian zone". All human activity would not be excluded, however, but it would be restricted I gather. Hiking, fishing and the like would probably remain. One would think it would have to, as the "gray zones" (the areas around streams designated as a buffer) comprise half of the entire Sierra landscape! It's not as terrible as this article makes it be, but it still isn't good at all.