3.0.0 3085 2023-01-11T13:32:38Z 2023-01-11T13:32:38Z Senate S 2016-06-22 114 ssaf00 Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Senate Standing Referred to 2016-06-22T21:43:19Z Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act of 2016 114 2647 HR 2016-09-19 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 634. Related bill CRS 2016-06-22 ssaf00 Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Senate Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. IntroReferral 2016-06-22 Introduced in Senate IntroReferral 10000 9 Library of Congress R000307 Sen. Roberts, Pat [R-KS] PAT ROBERTS R KS N Public Lands and Natural Resources Alternative dispute resolution, mediation, arbitration Civil actions and liability Congressional oversight Disaster relief and insurance Ecology Environmental assessment, monitoring, research Fires Forests, forestry, trees Government information and archives Indian lands and resources rights Insects Judicial review and appeals Land use and conservation Pest management Water use and supply Wildlife conservation and habitat protection Public Lands and Natural Resources 00 2016-06-22 Introduced in Senate 2016-07-14T15:06:39Z Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act of 2016

This bill sets forth a procedure for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to request declarations for major wildfire disasters on federal land.

This bill shall apply whenever the appropriate department prepares an environmental assessment (EA) or an environmental impact statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) for a forest management activity whose primary purpose is to:

  • reduce hazardous fuel loads,
  • reduce fuel connectivity through the installation of fuel and fire breaks,
  • restore forest health and resilience,
  • protect a municipal water supply, or
  • perform a combination of two or more such activities.

In an EA or EIS, the department concerned shall develop only these two alternatives:

  • the forest management activity proposed, or
  • the alternative of no action.

A categorical exclusion shall be available to the department concerned to: (1) expedite specified critical response actions, (2) expedite salvage operations in response to catastrophic events, (3) meet forest plan goals for early successional forests, and (4) improve and restore forest health and reduce the risk of wildfire.

(A "categorical exclusion" under NEPA is a category of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a federal agency in implementing environmental regulations and for which, therefore, neither an Environmental Assessment nor an Environmental Impact Statement is required.)

The bill establishes the State-Supported Forest Management Fund to cover the cost of certain forest management activities on National Forest System (NFS) or public land.

The Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 is amended regarding protection of tribal forest assets and management of Indian forest land authorized to include NFS and public land.

USDA shall issue grants for a state and private forest landscape-scale restoration program.

USDA shall establish an NFS:

  • pilot arbitration program to designate projects for an alternative dispute resolution process replacing judicial review, and
  • accelerated landscape restoration pilot program for the restoration or maintenance of designated landscapes.
]]> Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act of 2016 Display Title Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act of 2016 Official Title as Introduced A bill to improve forest management activities on National Forest System land and public land, and for other purposes. Introduced in Senate IS Short Titles as Introduced Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act of 2016 Introduced in Senate 2016-06-22T04:00:00Z https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-114s3085is/xml/BILLS-114s3085is.xml 2016-06-22 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries and statuses for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.