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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Utah is poised to join the Great Plains Interstate Fire Compact.
- Gov. Spencer Cox signed SB30, paving the way for Utah to enter the multi-state agreement to enhance interstate wildfire cooperation.
- The agreement comes after Utah has sent aid to other states in recent months ahead of its normal fire season.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is poised to be the newest member of an agreement between states on firefighting resources.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed SB30 on Monday, which allows the governor to enter or withdraw from the Great Plains Interstate Fire Compact. The agreement allows member states to seek “aid from the state forest fire control agency of any other member state in combating, controlling or preventing forest fires” that other member states can provide while also maintaining “protection at home,” per its charter.
Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming created the compact in 2006, but it has grown since. Arizona joined last year, while Kansas, Nebraska and New Mexico have also signed over time. Saskatchewan, Canada, joined in 2015, as well, making it an international compact.
The new law comes as Utah has already sent firefighters and equipment to California, Kansas and Texas to battle wildfires in those states this year alone. Many of Utah’s out-of-state responses have come as a result of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which offers similar assistance after emergencies or disasters have been declared.
Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands officials also pitched the idea of joining the Great Plains Interstate Fire Compact to Utah lawmakers as the threat of larger wildfires continues to grow. Sen. Derrin Owens, R-Fountain Green, called it a “good neighbor policy” when he introduced the bill on the opening day of this year’s session in January, a week after dozens of Utah firefighters deployed to battle California wildfires.
“Fire is not bad if it’s controlled. That’s one reason why we need tools like this, so the states can work together,” he said at the time.
He added in subsequent meetings that it’s a good resource to have when preparing ahead of wildfires and noted that Utah often has resources available to share with other states during slow fire seasons.
His colleagues agreed, as the measure unanimously sailed through the legislative session. Now signed, the bill goes into effect on May 7.
Cox also signed HB307 on Monday, clearing up language and combining different sources in the Utah Wildfire Fund so that the money can be used to cover everything from pre-fire mitigation to fire suppression efforts to post-fire rehabilitation.
It’s tied to another bill that the governor signed last week that addresses wildland-urban interface properties, particularly ways to identify and improve at-risk properties to potentially drive down insurance premiums that have risen because of wildfire risks.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.