Committee Gives Favorable Report to HB267, Modernizing Forestry Codes and Burn Permits

Representative Sales introduced HB267, saying the bill "updates and repeals outdated codes in the forestry section," and invited questions.

Scott Rouse, identified himself as the general counsel for the Alba Forestry Commission and described the bill as an overhaul of old code language and placement. Rouse said the bill moves burn-permit language out of a criminal-offenses section and modernizes how permits are obtained, "to an online system," while keeping the option to call dispatch for people without internet access. He said the substantive content is "about 95% the same" as current law but with updated wording.

Rouse described two substantive changes: first, the bill modifies the on-scene supervision requirement from staying "with the fire until it is dead out" to staying with the fire "until it is basically smoldering and it's within established fire breaks," language he said was more practical. Second, the bill would allow the state forester to deny a burn permit to a repeat bad actor who previously had fires escape or had statutory violations.

Rouse also said the bill includes several other adjustments: adding sick and annual leave for the state forester (a commission-requested benefit), raising a small land-sales threshold from 20 to 50 as an inflation adjustment, and an exemption from the Division of Construction Management for small maintenance projects. He emphasized there are no tax or fee increases in the bill.

After discussion, the committee moved and approved a favorable report by voice vote. The chair announced the ayes carried unanimously.

The committee forwarded HB267 with a favorable report; no floor action date was recorded during the session.