Forestry: Forest Fire Prevention Exemption.

The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, as defined, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from some or all of those provisions of the act a person engaging in specified forest management activities, as prescribed, including the harvesting of trees for the purpose of reducing the rate of fire spread, duration and intensity, fuel ignitability, or ignition of tree crowns, as provided, known as the Forest Fire Prevention Exemption. The act provides that the Forest Fire Prevention Exemption is operative for a period of 5 years after the effective date of emergency regulations adopted by the board to implement the exemption and is inoperative after that 5-year period. Existing regulations implementing that exemption specify that it becomes inoperative 5 years after February 19, 2019. This bill would make the operation of the Forest Fire Prevention Exemption inoperative on January 1, 2026.