Wildfire Mitigation And Recovery

Wildfire Matters Review Committee. Section 1 of the bill creates the wildfire mitigation and recovery grant program (grant program) in the Colorado state forest service (forest service) to provide grants to help counties with forested areas prevent and recover from wildfire incidents and ensure that such efforts are undertaken in a manner that reduces the amount of carbon that enters the atmosphere. In expending grant money, a county, to the extent practicable, shall ensure that biomass that is removed from forests is recycled or disposed of in a manner that reduces the amount of carbon that enters the atmosphere.The forest service shall administer the grant program and, subject to available appropriations, award grants out of money annually appropriated to the forest service for the grant program. The forest service shall review grant applications in consultation with the division of fire prevention and control in the department of public safety and with the Colorado forest health council in the department of natural resources.The grant program is repealed, effective September 1, 2028. Before the repeal, the grant program is scheduled for a sunset review by the department of regulatory agencies. Section 2 schedules this review.Section 1 of the bill requires the state forest service, on and after September 1, 2022, to develop a publicly accessible statewide carbon accounting framework that yields carbon stock and flux estimates for:

• Ecosystems by county and forest cover type; and
• Wood products.

The state forest service must also develop a forest carbon co-benefit framework for project-level forest management practices, including wildfire mitigation. The state forest service must use this framework to train practitioners in adaptive management practices to be incorporated into current forest management practices, including wildfire mitigation. The state forest service must provide technical expertise to assist industry and landowners with carbon inventories and monitoring. Section 1 also allows money from the existing healthy forests and vibrant communities fund to be used for new purposes, including the new statewide carbon accounting framework.Section 2 appropriates, for the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $95,407 to the healthy forests and vibrant communities fund from the general fund.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)