BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SCR 75|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SCR 75
Author: Hollingsworth (R)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
WITHOUT REFERENCE TO COMMITTEE OR FILE
SUBJECT : Wildfires: United States Forest Service
SOURCE : Regional Council of Rural Counties
DIGEST : This resolution declares that there is an
ongoing emergency due to the threat of wildfire, calls on
the federal government to take immediate measures to
prevent imminent catastrophic wildfires, and requests
Governor Schwarzenegger to advocate at the federal level
for the United States Forest Service to undertake
prevention and maintenance work in the state's federal
forest lands and to encourage a change in management
structure in the United States Forest Service to coordinate
decisionmaking authority over state project decisions
inside the state.
ANALYSIS : Resolution findings:
1. Catastrophic wildfires continue to threaten lives,
property, and the natural resources of the state.
2. Insurance losses for each fire season run into the
billions of dollars, and insurers have paid out in
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excess of $8,000,000,000 to thousands of policy holders
from just the top 10 state wildfires since 1970.
3. State wildfires cause employment losses in the hundreds
of millions of dollars.
4. The increase of catastrophic wildfires in the state has
resulted in harmful secondary environmental effects,
including diminished air and water quality, impacted
watersheds, increased greenhouse gas emissions and other
air pollutant emissions, and threatened habitats of
sensitive wildlife species.
5. Approximately 80 percent of the state's developed
surface water supply originates on watershed lands
within rural counties and near federal lands. The
state's residents utilize this water for domestic,
commercial, agricultural, industrial, recreational, and
other beneficial uses. These rivers, lakes, and
watershed lands also serve as habitat for hundreds of
species of fish and wildlife.
6. The state is comprised of approximately 50 percent
publicly owned land and 50 percent privately owned land,
but many rural counties have substantially higher
percentages of publicly owned land, some as much as 98
percent.
7. There are over 43,000,000 acres of federal land in the
state, much of which has not been adequately managed to
mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
8. Two of the three largest wildfires in the state in the
past 100 years began on federally owned land.
9. Millions of dollars are spent each year fighting fires
in our national forests.
10.The United States Forest Service spent over
$1,270,000,000 on fire suppression in 2008, which
exceeded 50 percent of the 2008 wildland fire budget.
11.The escalating costs of fighting fires on United States
Forest Service land over the last 10 years has
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significantly diminished the available resources for the
critically needed prevention measures that could
minimize these catastrophic fires.
12.The state has made significant strides towards reducing
the risk of catastrophic wildfires on state and private
lands, including ranking lands as to the level of fire
hazard, requiring 100 feet of defensible space around
homes, requiring ignition-resistant materials on all new
construction that is built in a fire hazard severity
zone within a state responsibility area, a local agency
very high fire hazard severity zone, or a designated
wildland-urban interface fire area, and many other
things to not only address preservation of life and
property but mitigate the environmental damage of large
scale wildfire as well.
13.Even with these positive mitigation efforts made by the
state, there continues to be an extreme risk of
catastrophic wildfires in the state and throughout the
West due to unnaturally heavy fuel loads and the early
drying of wildland vegetation.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/12/10)
Regional Council of Rural Counties (source)
CTW:nl 4/12/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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