Northern communities rich in forestland looking for assistance after catastrophic storms could find needed relief under a bill authored by Rep. Mary Williams that received a public hearing in the Assembly Forestry Committee Tuesday.
The Department of Natural Resources manages an urban forestry grant program that provides 50 percent of the costs of tree management projects, such as ordinance development and inventories, for towns, counties, villages and non-profit conservation organizations.
Communities have until October 1 to submit grant requests to the DNR, and those communities approved for assistance receive the aid by late December of that year.
Under current law, however, in order to receive any assistance from a DNR urban forestry grant, communities must match the remaining 50 percent to receive the full DNR grant.
Williams, R-Medford, said such a request can be damaging to communities with forestland that has been devastated by windstorms.
"They already have to use so much of their resources to restore critical infrastructure that they do not always have enough left to provide the 50 percent matching funds needed for the grant," Williams said in her testimony to the committee.
And if communities are hit in late fall after the October application deadline, communities have a long wait for aid, Williams added.
Williams' bill, AB 1042, would allow the DNR to extend grants covering 100 percent of costs of removal of trees as a result of catastrophic storms in urban areas where the governor has declared a state of emergency, to those entities listed under current law, as well as to Indian tribes.
Those damaged communities also cannot have qualified for federal relief assistance if they are to be eligible for a DNR grant under AB 1042.
The bill would also exempt communities from the current 50 percent matching funds requirement.
Williams said the bill provides relief for communities like Ladysmith and Siren that have recently experienced devastation to their local forests due to windstorms and tornadoes.
A tornado that ripped through Ladysmith on Labor Day of 2002 caused more than $20 million in estimated damages, part of which included damages to trees that were blown over or uprooted during the storm.
"This bill will help provide real relief and help those communities that are affected by a catastrophic storm and it will allow that help to come sooner, rather than later," she said.
Rapid restoration of damaged forestlands is essential not only for local forestry businesses, but also for restoring the economic health of the community at large, Williams said.
"You are restoring the community to help all businesses because once it's better looking, you'll get more traffic, you'll get tourism and you'll get your shoppers," she said.
Dick Rideout, state urban forestry coordinator with the Bureau of Forestry Management in the DNR Division of Forestry, said AB 1042's exemption of the costs share requirements for communities would also reduce paperwork while easing the strain on local budgets during these emergencies.
Had AB 1042 been law during August's Stoughton tornado, Rideout said, the DNR could have responded with grants within three weeks to replace and remove trees instead of having the local government struggle through the application and grant process in the one month they had to apply for a grant.
Rideout also said that the DNR would continue to monitor such grants appropriately should the bill be signed into law.
"If AB 1042 becomes law, the department will continue to use its authority and expertise to monitor grant projects, assuring funds are used specifically for storm-related tree restoration, tree removal and/or replacement," he said in his testimony.
The bill awaits an executive session vote in the committee. If voted out of the committee, AB 1042 could potentially be scheduled for the Assembly when the Legislature returns for limited action in late April.Ashland Daily Press
