A bill designed to establish a grant program for healthy forests in the state has failed to pass the House floor.
Senate Bill 134 set aside money in relief grants to support forestry management efforts. The money would be sourced from the American Rescue Plan Act and managed through the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Rep. Scott Odenbach is a prime sponsor of the bill. He said it’s necessary due to the federal government’s poor forest management.
"Because of the United States Forest Service inaction, the contractors, loggers, log haulers, and forest products manufacturers in the Black Hills who work to keep our forests thinned out and managed are facing extinction," said Odenbach. "The Forest Services keeps a policy of starving out the local timber industry by essentially banning sufficient levels of logging and thinning.”
Opponents said they agree with protecting our forests but not where the bill was pulling money from.
Rep. Linda Duba voiced her doubts on the bill’s funding.
“We cannot be subject to wildfires like we’re seeing right now in Texas, we’ve seen in California, because we are not taking care of the forest. My only concern is this earmark of this money. Because if we allocate it, and we start to spend it, and then the government comes back to us and says, ‘we audited you and that is not a viable expense,’ now that money has to come out of the general fund,” said Duba.
The bill ultimately failed to gain enough support to pass the House.
