On Tuesday, Governor Mike Dunleavy signed House Bill 209, which is a piece of legislation relating to emergency firefighters that will help build the State’s mostly rural-based firefighting crews, strengthen local economies, and provide enhanced public safety to Alaska communities.
Governor Mike Dunleavy said:
“This important change lets the State put local fire crews to work more consistently and grow our rural firefighting capabilities. And with more flexibility to prevent wildland fires through fuels reduction projects, not just fight active fires, it’s another tool in our toolkit to keep Alaskans, their homes, and our State’s critical infrastructure safe.”
Sen. Click Bishop spoke on House Bill 209 on the Senate floor in April:
“HB 209 will allow the DNR to use general fund appropriations dedicated to fuels reduction to pay emergency firefighting personnel to perform non-emergency hazardous fuels reductions. Ultimately saving money by developing an Alaskan trained workforce, rather than importing crews from the Lower-48. We all know with the climate change and the fires in the Lower-48, the cavalry’s not coming anymore because they’re busy out there doing their own fires.”
Sen. Bishop added that Alaska needs to train their own:
“Alaskan crews are less expensive than imported crews. They’re right here, on time, on demand, (click) in a moment’s notice. Our crews are trained in tactics that are Alaska tactics, Alaska specific tactics. They know the terrain; they know the fuels and they know the conditions. They can quickly attack these wildfires in aggressive manner ensuring a smaller fire footprint.”
The new law amends current statute and allows the Department of Natural Resources to use general fund appropriations to pay emergency firefighting personnel to perform non-emergency hazardous fuels reduction work. This simple yet important change will help the Division of Forestry retain the firefighters they train and deploy during the summer fire season, using them for non-fire programs like fuels mitigation outside of the normal fire season.
The bill, sponsored by Representative Mike Cronk of Tok, passed unanimously in the House of Representatives during the most recent Legislative session.
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