Emergency Mountain Pine Beetle Response Act

This Act may be cited as the “Emergency Mountain Pine Beetle Response Act”.

(a) Program establishment.— The Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, shall establish a competitive grant program to be known as the “Mountain Pine Beetle Response Program” (referred to in this section as the “Program”) under which the Secretary may issue a grant to sponsor for use carrying out an emergency mountain pine beetle response project described in subsection (c).

(b) Selection.—

(1) Eligibility.— To be eligible to receive a grant under the Program, a sponsor shall submit to the Secretary an application at such time, in such form, and containing such information as the Secretary may require, including a description of the emergency mountain pine beetle response project proposed to be carried out with grant funds.

(2) Selection priority.— In selecting an applicant to receive a grant under the Program, the Secretary shall give priority to applicants that propose to carrying out emergency mountain pine beetle response project—

(A) designed to protect municipal water supplies and critical infrastructure;

(B) designed to reduce wildfire risk to communities in the wildland-urban interface;

(C) focused on an area that has experienced, or is experiencing, a mountain pine beetle outbreak resulting in high tree mortality or low natural ecological regeneration; and

(D) that aligns with a State forest action plan or watershed strategy.

(c) Emergency mountain pine beetle response project.— An emergency mountain pine beetle response project described in this subsection is a project carried out on National Forest System lands for purposes of restoring forest health in an area that experienced, or is experiencing, a mountain pine beetle outbreak resulting in significant tree mortality, that may include the following activities:

(1) Removal of beetle-killed or beetle infested hazard trees.

(2) Processing of beetle-killed or beetle infested hazard trees.

(3) Forest thinning and other fuels reduction of plant debris associated with mountain pine beetle mortality to alter or clear fuels created by the outbreak and address a public safety, critical infrastructure, or watershed health need.

(4) Reforestation, including tree planting.

(5) Ecological restoration designed to promote biodiversity.

(6) Watershed protection and stabilization measures, including—

(A) slope stabilization;

(B) sediment and runoff control;

(C) flood and erosion mitigation; and

(D) planning, monitoring, and technical assistance for purposes of maintaining watershed health.

(d) Disbursement.— In disbursing grant funds awarded to a grant recipient under the Program, the Secretary—

(1) may disburse all or part of such grant funds to the recipient at any time during the period beginning on the date on which the grant is awarded and ending 30 days after the date described in paragraph (2); and

(2) shall ensure that all such grant funds are disbursed not later than 30 days after the date on which the Secretary receives written notification from the recipient attesting that the emergency mountain pine beetle response project for which the grant was awarded is complete.

(e) Definitions.— In this section:

(1) Indian Tribe.— The term Indian Tribe has the meaning given such term in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).

(2) National Forest System.— The term National Forest System has the meaning given such term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).

(3) Sponsor.— The term sponsor means—

(A) a State or local government;

(B) an Indian Tribe;

(C) a water management district, water conservation district, special district, or a public water, wastewater, and stormwater utility; and

(D) an electric utility, transmitting utility, or transmission organization (as such terms are defined, respectively, in section 3 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796) or electrical transmission provider.

(4) Wildland-urban interface.— The term wildland-urban interface has the meaning given the term in section 101 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6511).