BILL WOULD PAY FOR TREES DESTROYED IN 'PRESCRIBED BURN'

By News Service Florida

Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, filed a proposal (SB 62) Thursday that would lead to Florida paying $670,493 to timber-land owner Shuler Limited Partnership for 835 acres of trees destroyed in April 2008 when embers drifted from a "prescribed burn" at a state forest. In May, a divided 1st District Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that the state should pay more than $700,000 to the firm. The state Division of Forestry and the state Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which owns the land within Tate's Hell State Forest in Franklin County where the prescribed burn was conducted, have already paid $100,000 to Shuler, according to Montford's bill. Montford's funding request --- known as a "claim" bill --- would also include related costs. Appeals court Judge Scott Makar wrote a 30-page dissent to the May decision and argued legal errors were made in interpreting a law that encourages prescribed burns, also known as controlled burns, on state land to help prevent major forest fires. In part, he pointed to liability protections in such cases, including a need to show "gross negligence" by the state.