WILDFIRE PREVENTION
As climate change helps fuel a wildfire season that’s starting earlier, lasting longer and growing more intense, Colorado Democrats worked hard to pass critical legislation to bolster wildfire mitigation and prevention efforts. As a result, Colorado is heading into what could be the most dangerous wildfire season in its history with the most aggressive and well-resourced fire response team the state has ever had, by far.
Resources For Volunteer Firefighters | SB22-002
Ginal, Story / Cutter, Will
Volunteer firefighters put in thousands of hours of work to mitigate and prevent wildfires. The bill provides $1 million in FY 2022-23 and $5 million in the two subsequent years to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control (DFPC) for safety and mental health treatment for volunteer firefighters. The bill also provides $4 million for safety equipment and training; with prioritization given to departments with greater funding needs and heavier reliance on volunteers. DFPC may use some of the funds to directly purchase and distribute equipment rather than giving grants.
Local Firefighter Safety Resources | HB 22-1194
Hansen & Rankin / McCluskie & Ransom
The bill provides $5 million to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control (DFPC) to provide safety equipment and training to volunteer firefighters. It includes a “direct supply” provision, under which the division will directly purchase and distribute the equipment rather than giving out small labor-intensive grants.
Wildfire Mitigation Incentives For Local Governments | HB 22-1011
Story & Lee / Cutter & Snyder
Local governments must be equipped with the necessary tools to do wildfire mitigation in their own communities. The bill creates a grant program in the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) to provide matching funds for local governments that dedicate funding for forest management or wildfire mitigation at the local level. Eligible projects included activities such as forest thinning, fuel reduction, and the creation of fire breaks. The program is funded with a one-time transfer of $10 million from the General Fund to the program’s newly created cash fund.
Increase Wildfire Risk Mitigation Outreach Efforts | SB 22-007
Story & Lee / Cutter & Snyder
The bill directs multiple state agencies to collaborate on a wildfire safety outreach campaign, which the State Forest Service must implement in coordination with partners during wildfire awareness month (May) of 2023 and 2024, and in future years if funding allows. The campaign must educate and incentivize people living in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) to undertake fire risk mitigation efforts.
Assistance Landowner Wildfire Mitigation | HB 22-1007
Simpson & Lee / D.Valdez & Lynch
The bill creates a grant program beginning in FY 2023-2024 for local wildfire mitigation and amends tax code benefits to landowners conducting wildfire mitigation. The grant funds are to conduct outreach to landowners regarding available resources and best practices for wildfire mitigation. The bill also extends a state income tax deduction for wildfire mitigation expenses by one year through 2025, and beginning tax year 2023, creates a 25% income tax credit for similar expenses, capped at $625 per year.
Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Resources | SB22-206
Fenberg / Amabile
The bill creates the Office of Climate Preparedness in the Governor’s office, tasked with coordinating disaster recovery efforts to better respond to natural disaster emergencies and developing a climate preparedness roadmap to ensure Colorado is better prepared for future climate-induced disasters. The bill also transfers $17 million to the Colorado Firefighting Air Corps Fund to lease wildfire fighting aviation resources and to establish and maintain a statewide dispatch center to ensure rapid response of fire mitigation resources. The bill also establishes two programs to help communities recover and rebuild following disasters. $15 million will go to the Disaster Resilience Rebuilding Program to provide loans and grants to homeowners, businesses, and local governments rebuilding after a disaster emergency. $20 million will go to the Disaster Recovery and Resilience Program to provide loans and grants to homeowners, businesses, and local governments to cover costs related to rebuilding more resilient and energy efficient homes and structures. The bill creates a disaster assistance portal through the Colorado Department of Public Safety to make disaster survivors’ recovery as simple, user-friendly and accessible to navigate as possible.
Fire Suppression Ponds Water Rights | SB22-114
Hisey & Story / Roberts & Catlin
The bill allows a board of county commissioners to designate a pond as a fire suppression pond - this action may protect some ponds that are important firefighting resources but may otherwise be drained if they are deemed to be using water out of priority. The Colorado Department of Public Safety will adopt rules for evaluating ponds for this designation.
Wildfire Mitigation And Recovery | HB22-1012
Ginal & Lee / Cutter & D.Valdez
The bill requires the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) to develop a publicly accessible carbon accounting framework that includes carbon stock and flux estimates for ecosystems by county and forest cover type, for wood products, and for project-level forest management practices, including wildfire mitigation. The agency must use this framework to train practitioners in management practices and must provide technical expertise to industry and landowners with carbon inventories and monitoring. It transfers $7.2 million from the General Fund to various cash funds in the CSFS to accomplish the work.
Regulation And Services For Wildfire Mitigation | HB22-1132
Liston / Holtorf & Exum
The bill requires that before conducting a controlled burn, a person notify their local fire department or other designated fire protection authority. It allocates $100,000 to an existing fund for need-based grants to volunteer fire departments to increase firefighter safety.
Wildfire Prevention Watershed Restoration Funding | HB22-1379
Donovan & Simpson / McCormick & Catlin
Colorado is seeing increasingly devastating wildfires that are impacting our access to clean drinking water and the water our agricultural producers need to survive. The bill transfers $20 million of federal funds as follows:
$3 million to the State Forest Service to support wildfire risk mitigation and watershed resilience;
$2 million to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for wildfire mitigation and fuel reduction projects;
$10 million to DNR for watershed restoration and flood mitigation project grants; and
$5 million for assisting local governments in applying for federal “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” money for related uses.
Insurance Coverage For Loss Declared Fire Disaster | HB22-1111
Rankin & Fenberg / Amabile
Insurance claims arising from large-scale fire disasters need to be handled differently from claims arising out of individual, isolated events. When multiple households, businesses. and communities all suffer damage at the same time, construction and housing resources are uniquely strained. The bill changes the requirements for homeowner’s insurance coverage and claims handling in the event of a total loss of an owner-occupied residence, including the contents, when the loss is a result of a wildfire disaster declared by the Governor. The bill requires insurers to pay disaster victims 65 percent of the value of the contents of their home up front without requiring the victim to do a comprehensive inventory of their personal property. Current law only guarantees 30 percent upfront. The bill requires insurers to provide additional time and flexibility in rebuilding or replacing an insured residence and its contents, additional living expense coverage, building code upgrade costs, and a way to directly contact the insurer as detailed in the bill.