SB19-037 Summary

• Permits county boards of commissioners to enter federal or state-owned land within or within 5 miles of county boundaries to remove wildfire fuel materials and create defensible spaces where concentrated fuel poses a substantial wildfire threat or where the government has failed to create defensible space

• Allows counties to use county employees or contract with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations to conduct wildfire mitigation work on federal and state lands

• Protects persons employed by or contracting with counties from liability for damages caused by mitigation work unless their conduct involved willful misconduct, gross negligence, or bad faith

• Appropriates $10 million from the general fund to the Department of Higher Education for the 2019-20 fiscal year for allocation to the Colorado State University system's forest restoration and wildfire risk mitigation grant program

• Takes effect September 1, 2019, subject to voter approval in November 2020 if a referendum petition is filed within 90 days of final adjournment