Senate committee hears bill to make DNRC fast-attack wildfire program permanent

House Bill 127 would make permanent a two-year pilot that funded Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) "fast attack" ground and aviation resources and would add a reporting requirement, proponents told the Senate Natural Resources Committee. Representative Lou Jones introduced the bill.

The bill builds on last session's House Bill 883, which created a two-year program DNRC used to contract helicopters, a heavy air tanker and incident-awareness aircraft. Sean Thomas, division administrator of the Forestry and Trust Lands Division at DNRC and the state forester, told the committee, "By enabling more effective initial attack on wildfires, we prevent larger, more destructive, and more expensive fires, potentially saving millions of dollars in suppression costs and property damage." He said the bill would add reporting so the Legislature receives annual updates on performance.

Proponents said the program expanded Montana-controlled firefighting capacity at a time national resources were constrained. Patrick Lonergan, president of the Montana County Fire Wardens Association, said the DNRC's contracted Chinook helicopter filled a local need when national and interagency assets were unavailable. Sean Thomas described additional tools paid for with the funds, including an exclusive-use type 1 Chinook helicopter, a heavy air tanker obtained through an interstate compact and an incident-awareness aircraft with a high-end infrared sensor that helped DNRC personnel find small lightning-ignited fires early.

Thomas said the program helped find fires that were not yet visible: "We found 13 fires that were using this technology before they were visible. 8 were near structures," and noted DNRC used high-resolution infrared mapping to give ground crews overnight perimeter intelligence. Representative Jones described the program's results in blunt terms: it "dumped 1,300,000 gallons of water on fires" and helped keep "95% of the fires that we responded to ... at 10 acres or less" over the last two seasons.

Industry and local-response organizations also supported the bill. Julia Altimus of the Montana Wood Products Association, Clayton Elliott of Trident Unlimited, Jason Todd Hunter of the Montana Logging Association and Rich Cowger, a fire chief and incident commander, said the program both protected timber resources and provided mitigation work that benefits mills and local contractors.

Committee members asked no substantive questions of proponents. Representative Jones closed by urging a "do pass." The committee hearing on House Bill 127 concluded with no recorded motion or vote in the transcript.

The bill remains a request to the committee; any formal committee action or amendments were not recorded in the transcript excerpt.