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Wildfire plans and tree clearing in North Dakota: Century Code chapter 49-25, the Public Service Commission and Otter Tail Power's plan

What North Dakota's 2025 wildfire mitigation law (Century Code chapter 49-25, Senate Bill 2339) says a utility plan may contain and how it is filed, and the transmission and distribution vegetation program in the plan Otter Tail Power Company filed with the Public Service Commission on March 5, 2026.

Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 10, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It restates four documents as read on October 10, 2026: chapter 49-25 of the North Dakota Century Code on the Legislative Assembly's site, the enrolled text and action history of Senate Bill 2339 of the 69th Legislative Assembly, and the Wildfire Mitigation Plan that Otter Tail Power Company filed in the Public Service Commission's case file. The side by side with other regions is on the guide to utility wildfire plans and tree clearing.

How the law came about

The bill history shows Senate Bill 2339 passed the Senate with 46 yeas and 1 nay on April 21, 2025, after the House passed it as amended on April 18, 2025 with 62 yeas and 28 nays. The Senate shows it signed by the Governor on April 24, 2025 and filed with the Secretary of State on April 25, 2025. The act created a new chapter of title 49, which the Century Code prints as chapter 49-25, titled Wildfire Mitigation Plan.

What chapter 49-25 says

Section 49-25-01 defines hazardous vegetation as plants such as trees, shrubs and grass that are dry, diseased, dead, or close enough to power lines to touch them, especially in dry and windy conditions. It defines a qualified utility as an electric public utility, rural electric cooperative, municipal electric utility, municipal joint action agency or electric transmission provider. Section 49-25-02 says a court may not apply strict liability to a qualified utility in a claim that it caused wildfire damage.

Section 49-25-03 says a qualified utility "may" prepare a plan. The plan must describe:

  • Parts of the service territory that may face a heightened wildfire risk.
  • The procedures, standards and time frames for operating and inspecting infrastructure affected by hazardous vegetation.
  • The procedures and standards for vegetation management.
  • Facility upgrades and preventative programs.
  • Procedures for disabling reclosers, weighing access, the risk of wildfire against continued supply, and the effect on public safety, first responders, and health and communication infrastructure.
  • Restoration procedures, implementation costs, outreach before and during a wildfire season, and possible participation in state or local wildfire plans.

The section adds that the procedures and standards must comply with American National Standards Institute standard A300, part 7, and the 2023 National Electrical Safety Code. Section 49-25-04 lets an electric public utility or transmission provider file a plan with the Commission, requires it to publish every plan on its website within 30 days of filing, and requires a filed plan to be updated and resubmitted every two years. A cooperative, municipal utility or joint action agency may instead submit to its board of directors, publish within 30 days of approval and have the board reapprove every two years. The section says preparing, publishing and complying with a plan is a rebuttable presumption that the utility used a reasonable standard of care. Section 49-25-05 lets a utility with a plan on file submit an annual compliance report to the Commission by December 31 of each year the plan is effective.

Otter Tail Power Company's filed plan

The company's cover letter to the Commission, dated March 5, 2026, says it submits the plan under section 49-25-03 for review and publishing. The plan is stamped version 2.0, effective March 5, 2026, and the Commission's file stamp shows 59 pages filed on that date. The plan says its service area covers parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, and a statute-to-plan table points to section 7.4 for the vegetation elements.

For transmission, the plan lists annual right-of-way patrols and inspections, cyclical vegetation management to reach required clearances, cyclical right-of-way maintenance, danger tree removal and quality assurance. It says the bulk electric system is patrolled once every calendar year, that the program is designed to meet North American Electric Reliability Corporation standard FAC-003 for circuits rated 200 kV or higher, and that it also draws on National Electrical Safety Code rule 218 and annual vegetation growth rates. Its method is integrated vegetation management, which it cites to ANSI A300 part 7. It says work on danger and hazard trees often needs consultation and permission from adjacent property owners, and that crews inspect the field after the work and store the record in a geographic information system.

For distribution, the plan says the program trims on average approximately 480 miles of primary line per year, through full feeder trims and hot spot trimming between them. It describes the trimming cycle as the time between full feeder trims, and says feeders are scheduled on past trim dates, reliability performance and fire risk areas. It gives no cycle length in years.

Sources