A 3608: 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.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3608 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY January 29, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. JONES -- 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 23 the purpose of training and credentialing volunteer, wild land search 24 and rescue personnel to assist and respond along with the forest ranger 25 force to search for lost and missing persons in the wild, remote and 26 forested areas of the state. 27 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD05560-01-5