|
House Bill 801 |
House Author: King, Ken |
|
Effective: 6-9-15 |
Senate Sponsor: Eltife |
House Bill 801 amends the Parks and Wildlife Code to provide for the adoption and implementation by the Parks and Wildlife Commission and the Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) of a general plan for the use of beneficial prescribed burns on state land that is managed by TPWD, to require the Prescribed Burning Board within the Department of Agriculture to review the general plan, and to require the completion and approval of a site-specific plan for a particular prescribed burn that is tailored to a designated area. The bill requires TPWD to provide adequate advance notice of a prescribed burn to each neighboring landowner and to appropriate local officials in the vicinity of the designated burn area and specifies the contents of the landowner's notice.
The bill requires TPWD to purchase liability insurance or establish a self-insurance fund for liability coverage to protect TPWD and its employees against claims resulting from bodily injury or death resulting from a prescribed burn or from injury to or destruction of property resulting from a prescribed burn. Among other provisions, the bill waives and abolishes sovereign immunity to suit to the extent of liability created under the bill's provisions.