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JBC declines most DNR pine‑beetle general‑fund asks, approves small Agriculture pilot
Summary
Lawmakers declined a $3.5M General Fund package proposed by DNR to respond to the mountain pine beetle and instead asked agencies to identify cash‑funding options; the House panel approved a Department of Agriculture pilot to rear and release a native predatory beetle on 160 acres.
The Joint Budget Committee debated a statewide mountain pine beetle response request and rejected most of the Department of Natural Resources’ General Fund asks, while approving a Department of Agriculture experimental pilot.
Kelly Shen, JBC staff, presented the administration’s S‑2 package asking roughly $3.8 million total — primarily $3.5 million General Fund for DNR to support CoSwap grants, expand Good Neighbor Authority projects on federal lands, and fund technical assistance to help private landowners access NRCS programs. Shen noted the State Forest Service has a continuously appropriated Healthy Forest and Vibrant Communities Cash Fund and that some of the proposed uses could be paid from cash funds, but staff recommended denial in the supplemental because the cash funds appear already committed and federal match and demand are uncertain.
After debate, a motion to adopt staff recommendation (deny the DNR portion) failed. The committee then invited DNR and other agencies to return with detailed options for using available cash funds and to show where federal matching funds are real and actionable. The committee recorded no final general‑fund appropriation for the DNR package and asked staff and agencies to explore alternatives.
Sam Rickman (JBC staff) presented a smaller Department of Agriculture proposal to pilot biological control by rearing the native predator Thanasius dubius and releasing it on 16 ten‑acre sites (160 acres) this autumn. The committee approved that pilot (ongoing 3‑FTE plan reduced to initial pilot), noting the project is small scale and experimental. Several members pressed for clarity on ecological risk and for assurances the program would not create unintended impacts; staff noted the proposed predator is native.
A separate request from the Division of Insurance to contract a modeling study of the homeowner‑insurance impacts of pine‑beetle driven wildfire risk was denied by the committee on staff recommendation; members pointed to recent insurance‑disclosure legislation and questioned duplicative study spending.
Members asked agencies to re‑examine cash‑fund balances and to return with a plan if they cannot reallocate existing funds, and to identify specific federal match streams they could access.
