SANTA FE, N.M. The New Mexico State Legislature is debating House Bill 57 which would change the way that private landowners utilize open burn opening practices on their property. Permits are already required to burn trash or weeds across Cibola County; this bill would change some of the process and the liability for landowners.
New Mexico State Representative Matthew McQueen (D — Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Torrance, Valencia), NM Rep. Gail Armstrong (R — Catron, Socorro, Valencia), and NM Majority Senate Floor Leader Peter Wirth (D — Santa Fe) introduced HB57. The bill, if passed, establishes that prescribed burns are not a nuisance to the public or private sectors and are in the best interest of the community in which they are held.
The bill creates as new division under the NM Energy, Minerals and Resource Department and the NM Forestry Service to institute a “certified prescribed burn management” course. With this proposed legislation all people involved in a prescribed burn must be certified through this program. If they are not and a fire gets out of hand, the act calls for doubling the fines and doubling any punishment that would normally be accrued.
The bill reads, “A private landowner or a private landowner’s agent, contractor or legally authorized designee who is not a certified prescribed burn manager and who conducts a prescribed burn is liable for double civil damages to property or injury caused by the prescribed burn, including the reignition of a previously contained prescribed burn, if that person was negligent in starting, controlling or extinguishing the prescribed burn.”
The fire manager will be certified through courses taken from a New Mexico State University Extension Services coordinator, according to the bill in its current text. Through those courses, which currently can cost no more than the actual expense involved in putting the training together, an individual may be certified in prescribed burning. However, the bill makes it clear that an individual does not need to complete this training to participate in an open burning project.
The bill creates a new funding category within the state’s treasury called the “forest land protection revolving fund.” All money earned through this act, either from permit purchases or the use of NMSU Extension Services will go into this fund to help support the Prescribed Burn Act, the Forest Conservation Act, and to help administer the watersheds across the state.
No money in this fund can be returned to the state’s General Fund.
Counties and municipalities are encouraged to pass a resolution making this bill the premier rule across the state for prescribed burns.
As of press time the bill is on its way to the House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee. The bill moves to the House Judiciary Committee to evaluate its legal standing after the HNREC. The bill will be sent to the House Floor for a vote, following approval in both chambers. If approved, it will make its way to the NM Senate committees.