Kopp-Witwer plan to prepare for wildfires moves ahead

With wildfire season rapidly approaching, a Senate committee has OK'd a Republican proposal to launch a year-long legislative review of the most effective ways to confront the fires that regularly ravage Colorado's forests and mountain communities.

Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, and Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, are championing the plan to create an interim committee investigating wildfire issues in areas where urban and wild lands collide.  They say they want the legislature to take a more active role in anticipating future wildfires and bolstering the work of community firefighting programs.

Part of their bill package to promote healthy forests, Senate Joint Resolution 25 gained the support of the Senate Committee on Local Government today with a 6-1 vote.  The healthy-forests package is one component of the GOP's legislative agenda for 2008. 

"We need more hands on deck," Kopp said.  "We need more legislators to own this as their issue to ensure it is taken more seriously in this body.  It's a critical policy area." 

They came up with the idea to create the interim committee because they say the issue hits too close to home to be ignored.  Kopp--who is a former "hot shot" forest firefighter and is also the son of a firefighter--wants to take what he says is a lifetime of education on the subject of forest fires and put it to use for his foothills constituents. They are often in harm's way due to wildfires.

Witwer, whose foothills district includes the site of the Hi Meadow fire and Buffalo Creek fire in recent years, says the state cannot afford to wait.

"If the Hayman and Missionary Ridge fires taught us anything, it's that the threat is real, and the state needs to act decisively to mitigate the impact of future fires," Witwer said. "The threat of catastrophic wildfire is only made worse by the beetle-kill situation. If we wait until tomorrow to act, it will be to late."

Kopp, who also did his master's thesis on the subject of wildfire mitigation, says he wants to ensure that Colorado's natural wonders are preserved for generations to come.  Giving local communities the tools and input to control or prevent wildfires is a major step in that direction.

"What necessitates this policy is the increasingly over-crowded, unhealthy forests combined with the rapidly growing populations in mountain towns," Kopp said.  "We have to act now."

The measure now heads to the full Senate.