Authorizes the forest ranger force to establish a training program for volunteer search and rescue personnel to assist the forest rangers in wild, remote and forested areas of the state.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2483
SPONSOR: Jones TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
authorizing the forest ranger force to establish a training program for
volunteer wild land search and rescue personnel
PURPOSE:
To authorize the DEC forest rangers to establish, direct and maintain a
program for the purposes of training and credentialing volunteers, wild-
land search and rescue personnel.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 - Amends subdivision 18 of section 9-0105 of the environmental
conservation law, as added by chapter 617 of the laws of 1984 to add a
new paragraph (b) to authorize the DEC forest rangers to establish,
direct and maintain a program for the purpose of training and creden-
tialing volunteer, wild land search and rescue personnel to assist and
respond along with the forest ranger force to search for lost and miss-
ing persons in the wild, remote and forest land areas of the state.
Section 2 - Contains the effective date
JUSTIFICATION:
This proposal would provide training and credentials for volunteer
search and rescue groups so that these groups are encouraged to organize
and participate in search and rescue operations. The participation of
volunteer search and rescue groups will benefit the public by providing
additional resources to respond in emergency situations where lost or
missing persons are in need of assistance, the Training that is provided
by the Department's forest rangers to these volunteer groups will help
ensure that volunteer search and rescue efforts are conducted in a safe
and effective manner. Well trained volunteer search and rescue groups
are very important since the Department has limited resources and must
conduct approximately 225 search and rescue efforts per year in wild
remote and forested areas of the state.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
02/05/18 referred to environmental conservation
01/15/19 referred to environmental conservation
01/08/20 referred to environmental conservation
01/06/21 referred to environmental conservation
01/05/22 referred to environmental conservation
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DARE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2483
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 26, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JONES, SANTABARBARA, RIVERA, PALMESANO, MILLER,
COOK, GOODELL, MORINELLO, FAHY -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A.
LUPARDO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Environmental
Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
authorizing the forest ranger force to establish a training program
for volunteer wild land search and rescue personnel
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 18 of section 9-0105 of the environmental
2 conservation law, as added by chapter 617 of the laws of 1984, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 18. a. Establish, operate and maintain a search and rescue program in
5 fire towns and fire districts of the state. For the purposes of this
6 section fire towns shall mean such towns provided for in section 9-1107
7 of this chapter and fire districts shall be deemed to be the fire
8 protection areas provided for in section 9-1109 of this chapter and
9 regulations promulgated pursuant to the authority of such sections.
10 Pursuant to such program the forest ranger force of the department shall
11 have the authority to organize, direct and execute search operations for
12 lost persons or civilian aircraft and conduct rescue operations for
13 persons injured or in serious danger of injury in the wild, remote and
14 forested areas of fire towns and fire districts of the state; provided
15 that, where criminal conduct is suspected or fugitive search is involved
16 such search or rescue operations shall be conducted under the jurisdic-
17 tion of the appropriate law enforcement agency. Search and rescue oper-
18 ations outside of fire towns and fire districts may be conducted by the
19 forest ranger force upon request of the agency conducting such opera-
20 tion.
21 b. Pursuant to such program, the forest ranger force of the department
22 shall have the authority to establish, direct and maintain a program for
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01699-01-3
A. 2483 2
1 the purpose of training and credentialing volunteer, wild land search
2 and rescue personnel to assist and respond along with the forest ranger
3 force to search for lost and missing persons in the wild, remote and
4 forested areas of the state.
5 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
