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There's a bill up for a hearing today titled "An Act relating to damaging a vehicle on public land by starting a fire or causing an explosion." Kinda catchy, huh?

Apparently this has been a pretty big problem in the Chugiak/Mat-Su area, where the bill's sponsor, Rep. Bill Stoltze, is from. Every year, people take vehicles back into the woods -- sometimes in some pretty hard-to-get places -- shoot them a whole bunch of times, and light them on fire. And every year, the community teams up with some recreation groups and goes in the drags the things out. There's generally a half-dozen cars each year, and the event has become an all-day thing with a BBQ afterwards.

I can think of places around Fairbanks where that might not be a bad idea.

Stoltze's bill, HB 268, would make it a felony to burn the cars on state or municipal land and would impose a stricter penalty than the one for, say, littering. The hope is to deter the activity.