Bipartisan ‘Fix Our Forests Act’ Introduced to Combat Wildfire Crisis
The new and bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act is comprehensive, bipartisan legislation aimed at restoring forest health, increasing resilience to catastrophic wildfires, and protecting communities. The bill is timely, with nearly 3 million acres already burned in wildfires this year.
Sponsored by House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Congressman Scott Peters (D-CA), the bill addresses the urgent need for active management across over 117 million acres of overgrown, fire-prone forests.
Westerman worked as an engineer and forester before serving in office. Peters has expressed his frustration with the proliferation of anti-forestry lawsuits and the importance of modernizing environmental laws to meet today’s challenges. (click below to watch). Rep. Peters and Chair Westerman are also co-authors of the Save our Sequoias Act, a bill to give land managers the tools and funding needed to save California’s iconic giant sequoias.
Key components of the Fix Our Forests Act include simplifying and expediting environmental reviews to reduce costs and planning times for critical forest management projects while maintaining rigorous environmental standards. This also aims to end frivolous litigation that delays necessary forest management efforts, often for years.
The bill creates a new “Fireshed Center” aimed at promoting collaboration and operational efficiency between public agencies, tribes and local communities. Additionally, the act provides agencies with new tools to restore watersheds, protect communities in the wildland-urban interface, and prevent the conversion of forests to non-forests.
The Fix Our Forests Act emphasizes the use of state-of-the-art science to prioritize the treatment of forests at the highest risk of wildfire. It incentivizes forest management projects of up to 10,000 acres to increase the pace and scale of active management.
To further support rural economies, the act strengthens tools such as Good Neighbor Authority and Stewardship Contracting, and adopts innovative technologies to address forest health threats like wildfires, drought, insects, and disease.
Additionally, the Fix Our Forests Act focuses on hardening utility rights-of-way against wildfires by encouraging more active management and the removal of hazardous trees. By streamlining environmental analyses, reducing legal obstacles, and enhancing forest restoration efforts, the Fix Our Forests Act aims to restore and protect America’s forests and communities.
