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SENATE FLOOR VERSION
April 8, 2024
ENGROSSED HOUSE
BILL NO. 3192 By: Newton of the House
and
Green of the Senate
An Act relating to forestry administration and
enforcement; amending 2 O.S. 2021, Sections 16 -2, 16-
4, and 16-8, which relate to t he Oklahoma Forestry
Code; defining terms; modifying definitions;
modifying duties of Forestry Division of Oklahoma
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry;
modifying terms; prohibiting liability for certain
activities; amending 2 O.S. 2021, Sections 16-21 and
16-28.2, which relate to forest fire prevention;
modifying term; modifying prescribed notification
area plan form; updating statutory references;
updating statutory language; and providing an
effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA:
SECTION 1. AMENDATORY 2 O.S. 2021, Section 16 -2, is
amended to read as follows:
Section 16-2. As used in the Oklahoma Forestry Code:
1. "Control line" means a constructed or natural barrier and
treated fire edge used to control a fire;
2. "Director" means the Director of Forestry of the Oklahoma
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry;
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2. 3. "Division" means the Forestry Division of the Oklahoma
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry;
3. 4. "Established property line" means any boundary line which
has been:
a. recognized by adjoining land owners as a boundary and
uncontested for at least fifteen (15) years including,
but not limited to, fence lines, roads, and natural
features,
b. established by a registered land surveyor, or
c. uncontested for at least fifteen (15) years;
5. "Fire line" means the actively burning or burned perimeter
of an uncontrolled wildfire of any size that necessitates the use of
direct or indirect tactical suppression acti ons to control the
wildfire;
4. 6. "Forest rangers" means all employees of the Forestry
Division who have responsibilities in forest and natural resource
protection, including laborers, mechanics, and other employees who
assist in forest and natural resource protection;
5. 7. "Forest" means a tract of land that is at least ten
percent (10%) stocked by trees of any size, whether of commercial or
noncommercial species, or formerly having tree cover and not
currently developed for nonforest non-forest use, including
woodlands, woodlots, windbreaks, and shelterbelts;
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8. "Hazardous duty" means actions performed on or near the fire
line required to fight and control wildfires in order to protect
lives, property, forests, and natural resources as well as functio ns
associated with wildland hazardous fuels reduction work to mitigate
and reduce wildfire threat to lives, property, forests, and natural
resources;
6. 9. "Logging or timber harvesting operations" means the
cutting or harvesting of and removal of timber from a site, leaving
the root mass intact;
7. 10. "Owner" means the possessor of a fee interest, a tenant,
lessee, occupant, or other person in lawful control of land;
8. 11. "Prescribed burning" means the controlled application of
fire by the owner or designated agent of croplands, rangelands, or
forestlands of fire to naturally occurring vegetative fuel under
specified environmental conditions and following appropriate
precautionary measures , which causes intended to keep the fire to be
confined to a predetermined area and accomplish land management
objectives;
9. 12. "Timber" means live and dead trees and the profit in any
live and dead trees including, but not limited to, bark, foliage,
wood, vines, firewood, crossties, and shrubbery;
10. 13. "Timber owner" means any person who owns the right to
cut or harvest timber at the time the timber is to be cut or
harvested, or who legally owns the severed timber;
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11. 14. "Wildfires" means any fire which is not controlled on
forests, grasslands, fields, or cr oplands; and
12. "Wild lands" 15. "Wildland" means any undeveloped lands
land regardless of kind of vegetative plant cover including forests,
prairies, marshes, and swamps forest, prairie, marsh, and swamp; and
16. "Wildland firefighter" means any fores t ranger employed by
the Forestry Division whose duty to fight wildfires includes
incident management, fire suppression, and hazardous wildland fuel
mitigation.
SECTION 2. AMENDATORY 2 O.S. 20 21, Section 16-4, is
amended to read as follows:
Section 16-4. It shall be the duty of the State Board of
Agriculture under terms the Board determines shall best serve the
public interest to assist and cooperate with federal and state
departments, educational institutions, counties, towns,
corporations, or individuals; to gather and disseminate information
about forests, their care and management; to prevent and extinguish
wildfires; to enforce all laws pertaining to forests and woodlands
wildlands; and to monitor the health, inventory, and co ndition of
the state's forest resources.
SECTION 3. AMENDATORY 2 O.S. 2021, Section 16 -8, is
amended to read as follows:
Section 16-8. A. The Forestry Division of the Oklahoma
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, in co nnection with
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the enforcement of the Oklahoma Forestry Code, shall have the
following powers, authority, and duties:
1. To enforce the provisions of this code and other forest and
forest protection laws of this state;
2. To prevent, mitigate, detect, extinguish suppress, and
investigate wildfires in this state;
3. To provide wildfire fighting wildland firefighting crews,
who shall be under the control and direction of forest rangers and
other designated agents of the Division;
4. To appoint district for esters, assistant district foresters,
investigators, rangers , and other employees;
5. To use the resources of the Division on state -owned parks
and other state-administered land to prevent and suppress fires
wildfires, to mitigate hazardous wildland fuels , and to establish
fire fighting wildland firefighting crews, who shall be authorized
to suppress fires wildfires on state land;
6. To be reimbursed on an actual cost basis for all services
provided to state parks and other land administered by the State of
Oklahoma;
7. To investigate cases of forest timber theft;
8. To make available for sale surplus state vehicles directly
to rural fire departments or municipal fire departments, in cities
or towns under ten thousan d (10,000) population. State vehicles may
be offered for sale only after approval is given in writing by the
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Office of Management and Enterprise Services and an evaluation is
made of each vehicle and a price set by the Office of Management and
Enterprise Services. The Forestry Division may o nly receive the
amount authorized by the Office of Management and Enterprise
Services for the sale of the vehicle;
9. To purchase equipment from the Rural Fire Defense Equipment
Revolving Fund's inventory, when advant ageous to the state, and to
reimburse the Revolving Fund; and
10. To plan and conduct prescribed burning at the request and
expense of landowners on public or private land for the purpose of
controlling Eastern Redcedar and other invasive or exotic species,
for hazardous fuel reduction, wildl ife habitat manipulation,
ecosystem restoration, or achieving silvicultural objectives.
Forestry Division employees shall be protected under The
Governmental Tort Claims Act and shall not be personally liable
beyond the limits established therein for acti vities pursuant to
this paragraph unless gross negligence is established in a competent
court of law.
B. Forest rangers, and the fire fighting firefighting crews
under their control and direction, may enter upon any land for the
purpose of preventing and suppressing wildfires and to enforce the
provisions of the Oklahoma Forestry Code and other wildfire and
forest protection laws of this state.
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C. Forest rangers, employees of the Division, and all persons
under contract or agreement with the Division to a ssist in fire
fighting firefighting operations, as well as persons called upon by
forest rangers or other authorized employees of the Division to
assist in fire fighting firefighting under the direction or
supervision of employees of the Division, may, in the performance of
their duties, set backfires, dig trenches, cut firelines construct
control lines, and carry on all customary activities in the fighting
of wildfires without incurring liability to any person.
D. Under the direction of forest rangers and upon written
receipt of permission consent of the landowner, county officers and
employees may, in the performance of their duties and without
incurring liability to any person, cut firelines construct control
lines and carry out all customary activities for conducting
prescribed burns to mitigate hazardous wildland fuels for the
prevention of to prevent wildfires on private lands.
E. Upon written consent from a landowner or designated agent,
forest rangers, in the performance of their duties and without
incurring liability to any person, may construct control lines,
carry out all customary activities for conducting prescribed burns,
and utilize mechanized equipment to reduce hazardous wildland fuels
in order to mitigate or reduce the effects of wildfires on lives,
property, forests, and natural resources on private and public lands
in this state.
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1. The Director of the Forestry Division may appoint, subject
to the approval of the State Board of Agriculture, special of ficers
who shall have the power and au thority to arrest. The special
officers shall have power and authority throughout the state, under
the direction and control of the Division, to enforce the criminal
provisions contained in the Oklahoma Forestry Code, other laws
relating to forests and wi ldfires and the Oklahoma Agricultural
Code.
2. The special officers shall have power and authority to make
arrests with or without warrants for violations of the criminal
provisions of the Oklahoma Forestry Code, othe r laws relating to
forests and wildfires and the Oklahoma Agricultural Code to the same
extent and under the same limitations and duties as peace officers
under the provisions of Chapter 3 of Title 22, Chapter 3 of the
Oklahoma Statutes.
3. In connection with the enforcement of the criminal
provisions, the special officers and other state investigators or
law enforcement officers may go upon all premises when necessary for
the enforcement of laws. All special officers shall be ex officio
forest rangers and shall be under the control and direc tion of the
Division; except, the Director may at any time, for cause, remove
any powers and authority of arrest conferred. Special officers
shall have the same right and authority to carry arms as the
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sheriffs of this state. The compensation of special officers shall
be fixed and paid by the Division from its funds.
SECTION 4. AMENDATORY 2 O.S. 2021, Section 16 -21, is
amended to read as follows:
Section 16-21. The Division shall organize fo rest protection
areas to prevent, dete ct, and suppress wildfires most effectively,
and may employ forest rangers to have charge of its activities in
each area; may subdivide each area into patrol areas; may construct
lookout towers, roads, bridges, firelines control lines, office
facilities, and communication facilities; may purchase tools for
firefighting as well as other necessary supplies and equipment; and
may carry on all activities necessary to protect the area
effectively from fires.
SECTION 5. AMENDATORY 2 O.S. 2021, Section 16-28.2, is
amended to read as follows:
Section 16-28.2 A. 1. The provisions of this section apply to
a prescribed burn.
2. Any owner wishing to set fire to land in order to conduct a
prescribed burn shall comply with the provisions of t his section.
B. 1. Within sixty (60) days prior to conducting a prescribed
burn, the owner of the land to be burned shall orally or in writing
notify all landowners whose lands adjoin the owner's land to be
burned.
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2. If any landowner is burning on a la rge, consolidated tract
of land in which there are multiple adjacent owners, only those
owners with adjoining land within one (1) mile of the proposed burn
area must be notified.
3. The owner shall include in the written notice or shall
orally notify the adjoining landowners of the proposed date and
location of the burn and a telephone number where the owner can be
reached for information regarding the prescribed burn.
C. In addition to notification of adjoining prope rty owners
pursuant to subsection B of this section, the owner of the land to
be burned shall complete the prescribed burn notification plan
specified in subsection D of this section and shall submit such plan
to the rural fire department nearest the land to be burned. If the
land to be burned is in a protection area, the owner shall also
submit a copy of the notification plan to the local office or local
representative of the Forestry Division nearest to the land to be
burned.
D. Any person wishing to co nduct a prescribed burn shall
complete this a Prescribed Burn Notification Plan form, distributed
prescribed by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and
Forestry, which shall be in substantially the following form: .
PRESCRIBED BURN NOTIFICATION PLAN
Name_______________________________ ________ Phone____________
Address_____________________________________ County____________
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City, State, Zip_______________________________________________
Ranch name, if any___________________________________________ __
Area to be burned__________________ ____________________________
Approximate acres to be burned_________________________________
Written distance description of location_______________________
_______________________________________________________________
Projected time frame_______________ ____________________________
Date of previous burn__________________________________________
Objectives to be accomplished through the prescribed burn:
_______________________________________________________________
________________________________________ _______________________
_______________________________________________________________
Contact information:
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_______________________ ______________________________________
Rural Fire Department:
Name: Location: Phone No.:
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Forestry District Office (for protect ion areas)______________
_____________________________________________________________
Adjoining landowners:
_____________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________
_______________________ ______________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
The original copy of the form must shall be filed with the rural
fire department nearest to the land to be burned. I f conducting a
prescribed burn within a protection area, a copy of the prescribed
burn notification plan must shall be filed with the local office or
local representative of the Forestry Division nearest to the land to
be burned. A copy of the plan shall be retained by the owner of the
land to be burned.
E. 1. Whether the land is located within or outside a
protection area, the owner of the land to be burned shall, within
forty-eight (48) hours of conducting a prescribed burn, notify the
rural fire department receiving a copy of the prescrib ed burn
notification plan that the prescribed burn will be conducted.
2. Within a protection area, the owner of the land to be burned
shall also, within the time period required by Section 7 16-28.1 of
this act title, notify the local office or local repr esentative of
the Forestry Division receiving a copy of the prescribed burn
notification plan.
F. A prescribed burn conducted pursuant to provisions of this
section shall:
1. Be considered in the public interest and shall not
constitute a public or priva te nuisance; and
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2. Be considered a property right of the property owner if
vegetative fuels are used.
G. 1. Any owner conducting a prescribed burn who is found by a
court of law to have caused damages or injury as a result of
accident or by ordinary ne gligence shall only be civilly liable for
actual damages resulting from the prescribed burn.
2. Any owner conducting a prescribed burn who is found by a
court of law to have committed gross negligence in conducting th e
prescribed burn may be found to be b oth civilly liable for the
amount of damage done by the fire, and criminally liable pursuant to
paragraph 3 of this subsection.
3. Any owner setting or causing to be set on fire land as
authorized by this section, and as a result of gross negligence
permitting the fire to spread beyond the control of the owner or
beyond the bounds of the owner's land, shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, be fined a sum not more
than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), or imprisonment in the cou nty
jail for a period not more than six (6) months.
SECTION 6. This act shall become effective November 1, 2024.
COMMITTEE REPORT BY: COMMITTEE ON TOURISM AND WILDLIFE
April 8, 2024 - DO PASS