Authored by Bill Dodd, D-Napa, SB-442 allows the California Department of Parks and Recreation to issue commercialization permits and set commercialization fees that can be used for the protection, conservation and restoration of resources of the state park system. The University of California, Davis, became a major driver for the new legislation after Johan Leveau, a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, discovered a promising anti-fungal microbe in soils from the Jug Handle State Natural Reserve along the Mendocino Coast but found himself unable to translate his discovery into a public benefit because existing state law did not allow the commercialization of research materials from state parks.