February 26, 2009 - 04:17 pm
News Feed: Colorado

Beetle-kill wildfire bill moves on as Scanlan, Gibbs lobby feds

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The biggest no-brainer piece of legislation the state’s 67th General Assembly will likely see this session, the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (or Senate Bill 1), easily passed out of the House Wednesday, even as its co-sponsor, Rep. Christine Scanlan (D-Dillon) headed to Washington seeking federal funds to combat the beetle-kill epidemic.

SB 1 directs the state forester to establish guidelines for communities in the wildland-urban interface to identify and mitigate fire hazards.

It’s not surprising that it’s moving on. What is surprising is that it’s taken some communities, surrounded by 2 million acres of dead and dying trees, this long to start planning. And that it takes the state Legislature to light a fire, so to speak, under some towns and counties.

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