Creates the Old Growth Forest Protection Act to provide protection for state-owned forestland in their natural state prohibiting extractive logging and clearcutting in any forest on state-owned land.
H5294 would create a new “Old Growth Forest Protection Act” in Rhode Island law to protect old growth forests, natural area preserves, and other ecologically sensitive forest areas on state-owned land and, in some cases, municipal land. The bill defines old growth forest, rare forest ecosystem, wildlands, buffer areas, and related terms, and it establishes a new Natural Heritage Program within the division of statewide planning to inventory, monitor, map, and help protect these resources. The program would also be responsible for biodiversity planning, invasive species lists, educational materials, and coordination with state and local land managers.
The bill broadly prohibits extractive logging in old growth forests on state-owned land and municipal land, prohibits extractive logging in natural area preserves, and bans clearcutting in any forest on state-owned land. It allows limited exceptions for removing hazard trees near trails and invasive non-native trees that threaten native ecosystems, subject to approval by the Natural Heritage Program. Before logging or prescribed burning on state-owned forestland, the bill requires inventories, public notice, public hearings, council approval, public access to maps and data, and visual documentation of operations. It also adds civil penalties for violations and amends the Natural Areas Protection Act of 1993 to shift administration and terminology toward the new Natural Heritage Program structure.
If enacted, the bill would significantly expand state law governing forest management by adding a new chapter to Title 2 and creating a new chapter in Title 42. It would restrict state and municipal authority to conduct logging in designated old growth forests and natural area preserves, require ecological inventories before land management actions, and create a formal process for identifying and potentially designating additional natural area preserves. It would also alter existing natural areas law by replacing references to the Department of Environmental Management director with the new program coordinator and by placing administration of natural area preserves largely under the division of statewide planning.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes, the overall sentiment appears strongly supportive of forest preservation and biodiversity protection. The findings section frames the bill as a response to habitat loss, climate change, wildfire risk, and the lack of protected wildlands in Rhode Island, suggesting a conservation-oriented policy goal. No contrary viewpoints are documented in the provided materials, so there is no recorded legislative opposition or support to characterize beyond the bill’s protective intent.
The main points of contention likely concern the bill’s restrictions on logging and prescribed burning, the breadth of state oversight, and the creation of a new program with significant authority over land management decisions. The bill would require advance inventories, public hearings, council approval, and appeal rights before many forestry actions, which could be viewed as limiting flexibility for state agencies, municipalities, and land managers. It also bars employees with timber-industry backgrounds from the new program and gives the Natural Heritage Program substantial discretion to determine what qualifies as old growth forest, rare forest ecosystem, or hazardous/invasive tree removal, which could raise administrative and procedural concerns.