S. 1797 would reduce the risks to Colorado communities and water supplies from severe wildfires, especially in areas affected by insect infestations, to provide model legislation that may be applied to other States experiencing similar insect infestations or other forest-related problems.
Detailed Summary
Colorado Forest Management Improvement Act of 2007 - Directs the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior to make grants to at-risk communities in Colorado to assist them in preparing, revising, or implementing a community wildfire protection plan.
Amends the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 to authorize the use of fire department grant funds for the development and implementation of community wildfire protection plans.
Directs the Secretaries to establish collection points for the placement of vegetative material removed from federal or other land as part of a hazardous fuel reduction project under this Act.
Rewrites provisions governing the biomass commercial utilization grant program.
Authorizes the Secretaries to designate as Healthy Forest Partnership Zones certain federal lands and non-federal lands adjacent to those lands that are at risk of uncharacteristically severe damage to at-risk communities or community water supply facilities from a wildland fire or an outbreak of insects or disease and require at least one management activity to reduce that risk.
Allows the Secretaries to enter into contracts or other agreements with partnering entities to implement hazardous fuel reduction or other projects on federal land to complement similar projects on bordering or adjacent non-federal land.
Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to: (1) provide grant assistance to the Colorado Wood Program and the Forest Restoration Institute, and any other appropriate entities; and (2) collaborate with the Institute to research, develop, and transfer broader landscape treatment strategies and ways to integrate best science with community needs.
Establishes the Colorado Forest Health Fund.
Requires the Secretaries to provide grants for the Colorado fuels for schools program.
Extends terms for stewardship end result contracting projects.
Makes permanent the Secretaries' authority to enter into cooperative agreements and contracts for federal and state cooperative watershed restoration and protection.
Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare fire-danger maps of forested lands.
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) extend the tax credit for electricity produced using open-loop biomass to facilities placed in service before January 1, 2030; (2) make electricity produced and sold at qualified open-loop biomass facilities eligible for the full credit rate; (3) partially exclude from gross income payments received for certain hazardous fuel reduction projects in Colorado; and (4) allow the deductibility of certain expenditures made in carrying out eligible hazardous fuel reduction projects on Colorado lands which are identified in community wildfire protection plans.
Status of the Legislation
Latest Major Action: 7/17/2007: Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
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