My efforts to improve wildfire mitigation and prevention:

Improve Wildfire Risk Mitigation Grant Program – many of these changes came from

discussions with El Paso and Teller County officials on efficient methods to reduce

forest fuels:

• Authorize the state to work with regional and local fire-fighters to plan and coordinate quick-response regional fire-fighting to put out fires quickly. 

• Allocate additional funding to wildfire mitigation for partnerships with cities, counties, and neighborhoods on mitigation projects to remove dead trees and other forest fuels.  NOTE:  For every $1 we spend on mitigation, we save $20+ on fire-fighting and fire recovery.  A fiscal no-brainer. 

• Increase penalties for unattended campfires. Many wildfires are started by campfires that irresponsible people left unattended, putting communities in danger and costing millions of dollars. Several counties sought this change in the law.

I cosponsored the following wildfire bills (all signed into law):

• Increase tax deductions/credits to help homeowners defray wildfire mitigation costs

• Funding for volunteer fire-fighting groups (to help with fire-fighting equipment)

• Authorize fire suppression ponds (especially important where water scarce for firefighters).