Colorado legislature addresses wildfire

The Colorado legislature is considering several bills related to wildfire.

SB 20. In Colorado, the existing law identifies the county sheriff as the official "fire warden" and is the person responsible for suppressing wildfires on private and state lands within their county. (Wyoming has a similar law.) This bill states that the fire authority of each city or county would be the "emergency response authority for wild land fires" unless designated otherwise. Oddly, in newspaper accounts this is described as a "chain of command", but the bill only identifies one position, the "emergency response authority"; apparently a one-link chain. The Colorado State Forest Service would be responsible for fires on state-owned land. The bill also requires each county to develop a wildfire preparedness plan.

Other bills that have been introduced include SB 18 (grants to communities for thinning forests), and HB 1199 (a variety of projects and loans to prevent fires).

Rick Cables, the Regional Forester for the U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Region, in testimony before the legislature's agriculture committees last week, advocated charging a fee to urban water users to be used for protecting the vegetation in the high-altitude watersheds. Cables was quoted as saying:

"If we could add 50 cents a month to the water users in Denver, that generates $6 million a year to invest in the watershed. And if we get Las Vegas and Phoenix and Los Angeles on board, it could be 10 cents a month, or 5."

Thanks Chuck.

Stimulus bill: $210 million for fire station construction

The Stimulus bill that President Obama will sign on Monday Tuesday includes $210 million for the construction of fire stations. The funds can be used for modifying, upgrading or constructing non-Federal fire stations, not to exceed $15 million per grant. The legislation also waives the cost-share provisions for 2009 and 2010 that have been in place for some earlier grants.

Yesterday we detailed the $515 million in the bill that is designated for wildland fire management.

Stimulus bill, conference version; $515 million for fire management

The "stimulus bill", aka "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009", has made it through the House, the Senate, and the Conference committee. Both the House and Senate are expected to vote on the Conference version on Friday.

It is doubtful that it will be changed again before it is signed by President Obama. HERE is a link to the portion of the conference committee's report that covers the land management agencies.

The table below shows the amounts in millions of dollars to be appropriated to the five major land management agencies. "Conf." stands for the final dollar amount that came out of the Conference Committee. "Ops" stands for operations.

Scroll way down to see the table.

Agency	Fire	Construction	Ops.
USFS House	850	650	0
USFS Senate	650 485	650	0
USFS Conf.	*500	650	0
NPS House	0	1,700	0
NPS Senate	0	589	213 158
NPS Conf.	0	589	146
USF&WS House	0	300	0
USF&WS Sen.	0	110	190 165
USF&WS Conf.	0	115	165
BLM House	0	325	0
BLM Senate	15	180	135
BLM Conf.	**15	180	125
BIA House	0	500	0
BIA Senate	0	522	40
BIA Conf.	0	450	40

Quotes from the report, about the amounts designated for Fire for the USFS and the BLM:

* "The conference agreement provides $500,000,000 for Wildland Fire Management instead of $485,000,000 proposed by the Senate and $850,000,000 proposed by the House. This includes $250,000,000 for hazardous fuels reduction, forest health protection, rehabilitation and hazard mitigation activities on Federal lands and $250,000,000 for cooperative activities to benefit State and private lands.

The conference agreement provides flexibility to the Service to allocate funds among existing State and private assistance programs to choose programs that provide the maximum public benefit. The Conferees encourage the Service to select individual projects based on a prioritization process which weighs the capacity of proposals to create the largest number of jobs in the shortest period of time and to create lasting value for the American public. The bill allows the Service to use up to $50,000,000 to make competitive grants for the purpose of creating incentives for increased use of biomass from federal and non-federal forested lands. To better address current economic conditions at the state and local level, funds provided for State and private forestry activities shall not be subject to matching or cost share requirements."

** "The funds should be used for high priority hazardous fuels reduction projects on Federal Lands."

What next?

The phrase "be careful what you ask for" comes to mind. These federal agencies have been suffering from declining budgets and shrinking staffs for years. Now they have large pots of money dumped into their laps that has to be spent very quickly. Some projects may be "shovel-ready", but in many cases written plans have to be developed and approved, environmental compliance sought, personnel may be hired, or contracts must be written, advertised, and awarded. All this while continuing the normal course of business.

The National Park Service, for example, anticipating a surge in their workload, is already sending out inquiries seeking ex-employees or retirees who have previous NPS contracting experience. Retirees may be hired as rehired annuitants with a waiver of dual compensation, that is, their current retirement annuity would not be reduced. Those interested can call Heidi Ernst at 303 987-6714 for more information.

UPDATE Feb. 14:

The Stimulus bill that President Obama will sign on Monday includes $210 million for the construction of fire stations. The funds can be used for modifying, upgrading or constructing non-Federal fire stations, not to exceed $15 million per grant. The legislation also waives the cost-share provisions for 2009 and 2010 that have been in place for some earlier grants.

Stimulus bill modified again, passes Senate

The "stimulus bill", aka "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" (or see it on Govtrack.us also) passed the Senate today with a vote of 61-37. The Senate modified it at least twice, with the latest numbers (in millions of dollars) shown in the table below. "Ops" stands for operations. The dollar amounts could change still again as the House and Senate "conference" and agree on a final version to go to the President for signature.

Scroll down to see the table.

Agency	Fire	Construction	Ops
USFS House	850	650	0
USFS Senate	650 485	650	0
NPS House	0	1,700	0
NPS Senate	0	589	213 158
USF&WS House	0	300	0
USF&WS Sen.	0	110	190 165
BLM House	0	325	0
BLM Senate	15	180	135
BIA House	0	500	0
BIA Senate	0	522	40

The Stimulus bill and wildland fire; Senate version

The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009", better known as the "stimulus bill", has been passed by the House and was debated in the Senate Friday night and also in a rare Saturday session. The Senate will most likely vote on it Monday or Tuesday.

The versions considered in the House and Senate are different in how they will affect the five major land management agencies. There could still be changes in the Senate, and when both houses agree on a conference version, there could be additional changes.

The latest version as amended in the Senate is HERE. (current as of 0700 MT, Feb. 8)

Below is a summary of the House and Senate versions. "Ops" stands for Operations. The numbers are dollars in millions.

(You'll have to scroll down to see the table.)

Agency	Fire	Construction	Ops
USFS House	850	650
USFS Senate	650	650
NPS House		1,700
NPS Senate		589	213
USF&WS House		300
USF&WS Sen.		110	190
BLM House		325
BLM Senate	15	180	135
BIA House		500
BIA Senate		522	40

The language in the Senate version of the bill for the U.S. Forest Service described "Fire Management" like this:

For an additional amount for `Wildland Fire Management', $650,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2010, for hazardous fuels reduction and hazard mitigation activities in areas at high risk of catastrophic wildfire, of which $350,000,000 is available for work on State and private lands using all the authorities available to the Forest Service: Provided, That of the funds provided for State and private land fuels reduction activities, up to $50,000,000 may be used to make grants for the purpose of creating incentives for increased use of biomass from national forest lands.