Committee approves sending draft legislative recommendations and outreach plan to full council; directs staff to refine language

The legislative committee approved moving a package of draft recommendations to the full Forest Health Council with permission for staff to finalize language before the Feb. 6 meeting.

Courtney and Allison walked members through draft recommendation language focused on maintaining and amplifying state grant programs. The committee agreed staff should add concrete demand numbers to the narrative where possible. The committee then endorsed three GNA 'buckets'—increasing state funding/awareness, modest statutory revisions aligned to federal Explore Act changes, and memorializing federal asks—and voted to let Chair McNally, Courtney and Christina refine the text prior to the full council vote.

Nut graf: Members also approved an outreach proposal to host early‑morning 'capital days' breakfasts and visual storyboards during the legislative session to brief legislators and staff with before-committee materials and case studies (Breckenridge, Cameron Peak). Separately, the committee placed a biomass transportation/sort-yard pilot recommendation on the list with the requirement that staff incorporate findings from two soon‑to‑be‑released biomass reports before finalizing the ask.

Votes at a glance: the committee voted (voice) to forward the prescribed‑fire bill to the full council for further discussion; it also voted to send the GNA buckets and outreach recommendations forward with delegated authority to refine language; and it voted to recommend a pilot program addressing biomass transport and sort yards, pending further study.

Ending: Staff will distribute refined language and cited statute sections in the shared document and circulate final drafts to the committee ahead of the Feb. 6 full council meeting.