U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen recently told the Capital Press that about 80 million acres of national forests are ripe for severe fires, but the agency is not treating these public lands fast enough. “Quite frankly, the scale is not big enough,” she admitted. “We’re not reducing the risk. America’s forests are in crisis.”
Certainly progress is being made to treat more acres. The Forest Service is also putting out more timber sales to help thin fire-prone forests. Yet the agency continues to be hamstrung by spiraling wildfire suppression costs, itself a symptom of forest neglect, and a regulatory process that takes too long, and costs too much money to increase the scale of forest management.
On May 8, Congressman Bruce Westerman, the only forester in Congress, along with other members of Congress re-introduced the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2019 to pair targeted forest management reforms with needed regulatory streamlining to improve the health and resiliency of forests and rangelands. It provides federal land management agencies immediate tools to increase the pace, scale and cost efficiency of forest management projects. Westerman introduced similar legislation in the previous Congress with bipartisan support, and several provisions were signed into law last year. Now it’s time to pass the rest of this comprehensive legislation.
The bill utilizes tools that the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management can implement immediately to mitigate insect and disease infestation, prevent damage to municipal watersheds and critical infrastructure, quickly harvest wildfire-killed trees to pay for reforestation and improve the health of forests and grasslands to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire. It also streamlines environmental reviews of projects for the removal of dead trees to pay for reforestation after large wildfires, requires an Environmental Assessment for a reforestation project, and encourages and speeds wildlife habitat improvement for wild turkey, ruffed grouse, elk, deer and other “early seral” forest-dependent species.