Panel takes aim at wildfires

Posted by egable on September 15th, 2008 filed in Journalism, Forests, Fire

An interim legislative committee on wildfire issues embraced a package of wide-ranging measures today in hopes of heading off — and better preparing for — Colorado’s next round of menacing wildfires.

Created by Senate Joint Resolution 25, the Committee on Wildfire Issues in Wild Land-Urban Interface Areas was the brainchild of Sen. Mike Kopp (R) and Rep. Rob Witwer (R) to take an active role in anticipating future wildfires and helping community firefighting programs.

The interim committee has met six times this year to study the challenges to traditional firefighting resources and to discuss policy changes and make legislative recommendations on state wildfire issues. The committee took public comments and testimony from groups involved in wildfire mitigation and has come up with several bills to address this issue.

Kopp, who will sponsor three of the measures in the 2009 legislature, said his county’s residents know the dangers that present themselves where there has been poor management of forests. Kopp’s bills include one to provide high-risk wildfire mitigation grants, and one that creates commercial incentives for removing dead trees that were infested by bark beetles and pose a fire hazard.