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108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1042
To authorize collaborative forest restoration and wildland fire hazard
mitigation projects on National Forest System lands and other public
and private lands, to improve the implementation of the National Fire
Plan, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 27, 2003
Mr. Udall of Colorado (for himself and Mr. Udall of New Mexico)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Resources, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
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A BILL
To authorize collaborative forest restoration and wildland fire hazard
mitigation projects on National Forest System lands and other public
and private lands, to improve the implementation of the National Fire
Plan, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
(a) Short Title.-- This Act may be cited as the ``Forest
Restoration and Fire Risk Reduction Act''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Purposes.
Sec. 4. Definitions.
Sec. 5. Transition.
Sec. 6. Cooperative program for hazardous fuel reduction projects.
Sec. 7. Selection process for hazardous fuels reduction projects.
Sec. 8. Monitoring and evaluation requirements.
Sec. 9. Administrative procedures under cooperative community
protection and forest restoration program.
Sec. 10. Special Department of Agriculture administrative appeals
process for hazardous fuels reduction
projects.
Sec. 11. Forest restoration and homeowner assistance program and
projects.
Sec. 12. Forest Restoration and Value-added Centers.
Sec. 13. Competitive service hiring preference for graduates of
certified youth service or conservation
corps.
Sec. 14. Research and training.
Sec. 15. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) More than a century of intensive fire suppression,
logging, livestock grazing, and urban development has altered
the natural fire regimes of some forested Federal public lands.
(2) One aspect of this altered ecological dynamic is the
presence of many dense tree stands characterized by small
diameter trees and excessive fuel buildups on the forest floor.
These conditions reduce biodiversity, provide fewer benefits to
human communities, wildlife, and watersheds, and pose an
increased risk of catastrophic wildfires that can destroy or
seriously damage both human and natural resources.
(3) Unnaturally severe wildfires on highly erodible soils
can result in disastrous flood events and sediment deposition
if such a fire is followed by heavy rains. This combination of
events poses a particular threat to communities that rely on
municipal drinking water supply facilities located on Federal
public lands or that rely on water flowing from these lands.
(4) Healthy and productive forested watersheds minimize the
threat of unnaturally high-intensity wildfires, provide
abundant and diverse wildlife habitat, and produce a variety of
products or benefits, including clean water.
(5) The risk of damage to human life and property from
unnaturally severe wild fires is greatly increased in areas
where rapidly expanding urban populations are intermingled with
forested wildlands, and a primary purpose of the National Fire
Plan is to reduce the risk of such wild fires in these areas,
known as the ``wildland/urban interface''.
(6) Restoration efforts are more successful when there is
involvement from Federal and State land managers, as well as
neighboring communities and other interested persons, when
projects are prioritized in high-risk areas where municipal
water supplies and human lives and property are threatened, and
when both decisions and implementation activities are carried
out across ownership boundaries.
(7) Designing demonstration restoration projects through a
collaborative approach may contribute to the development of
cost-effective restoration activities, empower diverse
organizations to implement activities that value local and
traditional knowledge, build ownership and civic pride, and
ensure healthy, diverse, and productive forests and watersheds.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are as follows:
(1) To reduce the risks to human life and property and
municipal drinking water supplies from large, high-intensity
wildfires on forested lands.
(2) To refocus the implementation of the National Fire Plan
to the areas of highest risk to people, property, and water
supplies by redirecting the National Fire Plan funding and
hazardous fuels reduction projects through State-established
project selection panels.
(3) To improve communication and joint-problem solving
among Federal, State, and local land managers, as well as other
individuals and groups who are interested in reducing the risk
of unnaturally severe wildfires and restoring the diversity of
forested lands.
(4) To encourage sustainable communities and sustainable
forests through collaborative partnerships focused on forest
restoration and reducing the risk of unnaturally severe
wildfires.
(5) To develop, demonstrate, and evaluate ecologically
sound forest restoration techniques and to assist in carrying
out forest restoration projects.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Federal lands.--The term ``Federal lands'' means--
(A) National Forest System lands; and
(B) public lands administered by the Secretary of
the Interior acting through the Bureau of Land
Management.
(2) Hazardous fuels reduction project.--The term
``hazardous fuels reduction project'' means a project--
(A) undertaken for the purpose of reducing the
amount of hazardous fuels resulting from alteration of
a natural fire regime as a result of fire suppression
or other activities or from insect infestation; and
(B) accomplished through the use of prescribed
burning or mechanical treatment.
(3) Inventoried roadless areas.--The term ``inventoried
roadless areas'' means the areas identified in a set of
inventoried roadless area maps contained in the Forest Service
Roadless Area Conservation, Final Environmental Impact
Statement, Volume 2, dated November 2000.
(4) Municipal water supply system.--The term ``municipal
water supply system'' means the dams, reservoirs, canals,
ditches, flumes, laterals, pipes, pipelines, or other surface
facilities and systems constructed or installed for the
impoundment, storage, transportation, or distribution of
drinking water for a community.
(5) National fire plan.--The term ``National Fire Plan''
means the plans, strategies, projects, and activities of the
Secretary concerned to respond to adverse impacts on
communities and the environment from wildfires on Federal
lands, which are based on and reflect--
(A) the report of the Secretary of Agriculture and
the Secretary of the Interior entitled ``Managing the
Impact of Wildfires on Communities and the
Environment'', dated September 8, 2000; and
(B) congressional direction accompanying
appropriations to the Department of Agriculture and the
Department of the Interior for wildland fire management
for fiscal year 2001 and subsequent years.
(6) Secretary concerned.--The term ``Secretary concerned''
means--
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture (or the designee
of the Secretary) with respect to National Forest
System lands; and
(B) the Secretary of the Interior (or the designee
of the Secretary) with respect to public lands
administered by the Secretary through the Bureau of
Land Management.
(7) Stakeholder.--The term ``stakeholder'' includes forest
landowners, local communities and political leaders, tribal
governments, local volunteer firefighters, conservation
organizations, educational institutions, and other interested
public and private entities.
(8) Wilderness study area.--The term ``Wilderness Study
Area'' means--
(A) a portion of the Federal lands that is
designated as suitable for wilderness in a land and
resources management plan; or
(B) other Federal lands that are managed so as not
to impair the suitability of such lands for
preservation as wilderness through inclusion in the
National Wilderness Preservation System.
(9) Wildland-urban interface.--The term ``wildland-urban
interface'' means a geographic area designated by the Secretary
concerned as an area--
(A) that is within or adjacent to an interface
community or intermix community, as those terms are
defined on page 753 of volume 66 of the Federal
Register, as published on January 4, 2001;
(B) on which conditions are conducive to large-
scale fire disturbance events; and
(C) for which a significant risk exists of a
resulting spread of the fire disturbance event, after
ignition, which would threaten human life and property.
SEC. 5. TRANSITION.
(a) Implementation.--No hazardous fuels reduction project shall be
planned or carried out by the Secretary concerned under the National
Fire Plan unless the project is planned and carried out pursuant to
this Act.
(b) Exception for Ongoing Projects.--This Act shall not apply to a
hazardous fuels reduction project for which analysis required pursuant
to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4331 et
seq.) has been completed on or before the date of the enactment of this
Act.
SEC. 6. COOPERATIVE PROGRAM FOR HAZARDOUS FUEL REDUCTION PROJECTS.
(a) Cooperative Community Protection and Forest Restoration
Program.--
(1) Establishment.--The Secretary concerned shall establish
a cooperative community protection and forest restoration
program under the National Fire Plan to make cost-share grants
to enable stakeholders to participate with the Secretary
concerned in planning and carrying out hazardous fuels
reduction projects that--
(A) are conducted in the wildland-urban interface
or to protect municipal water supply systems;
(B) are designed, implemented, and monitored
through a collaborative process that includes a diverse
and balanced group of stakeholders, as well as
appropriate Federal, tribal, State and local government
representatives;
(C) create local employment or training
opportunities within the context of accomplishing
restoration objectives that are consistent with the
purposes of this Act; and
(D) satisfy the other requirements specified in
subsection (d).
(2) Cross-boundary projects and participation.--Except as
otherwise provided in this section, hazardous fuels reduction
projects under the program may be carried out entirely on, or
involve any combination of, Federal lands, tribal lands, State
or local government lands, or private forest lands.
Prioritization, decisionmaking, and implementation of approved
hazardous fuels reduction projects should be on a cross-
boundary, landscape-scale basis, with both State and Federal
land managers able to act as agents of the other parties to the
project.
(3) Administration.--A grant made under the program shall
be administered by the appropriate State Forester, in
cooperation with the Secretary concerned in the same manner as
grants made pursuant to the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act
of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.).
(4) Cost-share requirements.--The Federal share of the cost
of a hazardous fuels reduction project under the program shall
not exceed 80 percent of the total cost of the project. The
required 20 percent matching funds may be provided in the form
of cash or in-kind contributions.
(b) Exclusion of Certain Federal Lands.--A hazardous fuels
reduction project under the program shall not be conducted on the
following Federal lands:
(1) A component of the National Wilderness Preservation
System.
(2) Federal lands where, by Act of Congress, Presidential
proclamation, or applicable land and resource management plan,
the removal of vegetation is prohibited or restricted.
(3) Wilderness Study Areas.
(4) Inventoried Roadless Areas.
(c) Tree Removal and Thinning Limitations.--In conducting a
hazardous fuels reduction project under the program, if the Federal
lands to be treated by the project contain fire resistant, pre-fire-
exclusion old or large trees, the Secretary concerned shall limit the
number and size of the trees to be removed so as to maintain as nearly
as possible an ecologically optimum number of such trees, as determined
by the Secretary concerned on a project-by-project basis, appropriate
for each ecosystem type. The Secretary concerned shall also emphasize
the removal of small-diameter trees and thinning from below for the
project.
(d) Other Eligibility Requirements.--
(1) Objectives.--To be an eligible hazardous fuels
reduction project under the program, the project shall address
the following objectives:
(A) Reduce the threat of large, high-intensity
wildfires in the area of the project and the negative
effects of excessive competition between trees by
restoring ecosystem functions, structures, and species
composition, including the reduction of nonnative
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