The Emergency Pine Beetle Response Act of 2025 creates new federal assistance programs to help private forest landowners and timber service businesses respond to pine beetle outbreaks. The bill provides cost-share payments covering up to 85 percent of restoration costs for eligible private forest owners and up to 50 percent for timber service businesses conducting outbreak response work like timber harvesting, prescribed burning, debris removal, and insecticide treatment. Additionally, the bill authorizes emergency loans covering at least 75 percent of the estimated costs for forest owners to address pine beetle damage, with an option to apply future cost-share payments toward loan repayment. To qualify, forest land must be located in counties designated as natural disaster areas within the preceding 12 months due to drought, wildfire, hurricane, flood, or similar events, and must have confirmed pine beetle infestations verified by the Forest Service or state forestry agencies. The legislation also allows the Department of Agriculture to provide supplemental grants to state, tribal, and local governments for pine beetle response and recovery efforts.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.