Conservation and natural resources; prescribed burning for silviculture purposes is exempt from certain burning notice and permit requirements; clarify

Georgia landowners gain controlled burn protections

Georgia counties and cities can add burn notice or permit rules, but those rules cannot restrict qualifying prescribed burns. These are controlled fires for forest management in a planned area, under specified environmental conditions and with appropriate precautions. Covered goals include preparing timber sites, reducing fire hazards, controlling undergrowth, improving wildlife habitat, supporting natural regrowth, maintaining longleaf pine ecosystems, and improving timber stands. Forest management includes harvesting, planting, thinning, and burning to support forest health, productivity, wildlife, and economic value. Unneeded leaf or brush piles do not qualify for these protections. An experienced or trained person must lead the burn and stay on site until the fire is adequately contained to reasonably prevent escape. The law treats qualifying prescribed burning as a landowner's property right, in the public interest, and not a public or private nuisance. It replaces the express state permit requirement with a duty to follow applicable state burning requirements; it does not remove those requirements.