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Alert – Tree Legislation in the 2017 Texas Legislature Special Session

The 30-day Special Session of the Texas Legislature started last week and tree related bills are moving very quickly. On Saturday, a Senate committee heard several hours of testimony on SB 14. This bill would eliminate all city ordinances regulating tree removal on private property – including all new subdivisions and commercial development. It has been passed out of Committee and will now be voted on in the full Senate.

Tomorrow, July 25th at 10:30 am, the House Urban Affairs Committee will hear testimony on HB 7 (a reintroduced tree bill from the Regular Session that was passed by both the Senate and House but vetoed by the Governor) and HB 70 – essentially the same bill as SB 14 above.

Here are some actions you can take:

  1. You can call your senator here: http://actnow.io/w53643D.
  2. You can come to the hearing tomorrow at 10:30 at the Capitol.
  3. Call your mayor and city council members and let them know how you feel and ask them to contact your House and Senate representatives.

If you would like more background, you can view http://defendtexastrees.org. This a site set up in opposition to state legislation that limits local control of trees in development but it also contains all the press related to this issue for your information.

Please contact me if you would like more information on tree related bills in this Special Session.

Sincerely,

Jason Alfaro

Chair, ISAT Legislative Committee

361.219.2075
jalfaro@cityofkingsville.com

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