Lawmakers enacted a program to remove eastern redcedars and other “harmful woody species” from parts of northwestern Oklahoma back in 2023. This year’s House Bill 2162 would expand that program to other parts of the state.

Redcedars are native to Oklahoma but have spread wildly beyond their established ecosystem niches, slurping water and providing fire fuel in the driest parts of the state.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert says he’s giving the trees more thought after this month’s fires.

“I knew we needed to pass that bill, but it wasn't high on my radar,” Hilbert said at a press conference Thursday. “Then, of course, in the wake of the wildfires, that's something that's really high on my personal priority list. Just having seen everything that everyone went through, we have to work on that.”

Redcedar removal has many benefits for ecosystems, but it also helps lessen the availability of fuel for fires.

“That corridor of Oklahoma City to Stillwater, to Tulsa and the rural parts, it's just a tinderbox of those eastern redcedars,” Hilbert said at a press conference Thursday. “Once those light up, it's hard to get control over it.”

The Senate also passed a similar bill last week, SB263. Both measures have a way to go before reaching the governor’s desk.