S. 5290 — Emergency Mountain Pine Beetle Response and Coordination Act

This section establishes the Mountain Pine Beetle Response Program, a competitive grant program under which the Secretary of Agriculture awards grants to states, Indian Tribes, water districts, utilities, and transmission providers to carry out projects on National Forest System land that restore forest health after mountain pine beetle outbreaks. Projects may include hazard tree removal and processing, forest thinning and fuels reduction, reforestation, ecological restoration, and watershed stabilization measures. The Secretary must prioritize grants for projects that protect municipal water supplies or critical infrastructure, reduce wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface, address areas of high tree mortality or low regeneration, or align with state forest action plans.

This section authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Forest Service, to enter into cooperative agreements with states, Indian tribes, counties, municipalities, and other local governments for the detection, treatment, and mitigation of mountain pine beetle infestations on federal or nonfederal land. It requires the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to provide technical assistance on detection, spread dynamics, and mitigation strategies, and requires Rural Development to provide technical assistance on workforce capacity, wood processing infrastructure, and markets for beetle-killed wood products including mass timber and wood energy.