House Bill 21-1045 Summary

• Creates the Emergency Invasive-Pest Response Fund in the state treasury, funded by transfers from the Plant Health, Pest Control, and Environmental Protection Cash Fund, remuneration from pest services, gifts, grants, donations, and General Assembly appropriations.

• Authorizes the Department of Agriculture Commissioner to enter voluntary agreements with persons and local governments to provide pest control services and charge fees, with all revenue deposited into the Emergency Invasive-Pest Response Fund.

• Allows the Commissioner to implement joint phytosanitary programs with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to economically or environmentally assist with mitigating or eradicating regulated nonquarantine pests.

• Grants the Commissioner authority to quarantine regulated articles harboring regulated pests with economically unacceptable impacts and to coordinate emergency actions to quarantine, control, or eradicate invasive pests.

• Adds comprehensive pest-related definitions to Colorado law, including plant pests, regulated pests, quarantine procedures, and establishes that boards of county commissioners may declare pests public nuisances requiring control or eradication.