[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 770 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 770

 To declare a State of Emergency on Federal lands within the State of 
    California for the immediate reduction in forest fuels for the 
                  prevention of catastrophic wildfire.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 1, 1995

 Mr. Herger (for himself and Mr. Riggs) introduced the following bill; 
 which was referred to the Committee on Resources and, in addition, to 
     the Committee on Agriculture, 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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To declare a State of Emergency on Federal lands within the State of 
    California for the immediate reduction in forest fuels for the 
                  prevention of catastrophic wildfire.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Forest Fire and 
Pest Emergency Act''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings and purpose.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Declaration of emergency.
Sec. 5. Strategic fire plan and budget.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--
            (1) Congress accepts the report and findings of the 
        National Commission on Wildlife Disasters, created through the 
        Wildfire Disaster Recovery Act of 1989 in response to the 
        destructive western fire season of 1987 and the Yellowstone 
        fires of 1988. The Commission found:
                    (A) Millions of acres of forest, grassland, and 
                desert in the United States face abnormally high risks 
                of wildfire due to altered species composition, 
                excessive fuel buildup, and increased ignition 
                opportunity.
                    (B) The problem is exceptionally severe on the 
                public lands of the Western States, where dangerous 
                conditions exist over very large areas and wildfires 
                can attain a size and intensity that defies control.
                    (C) Preventing disaster in such situations can no 
                longer be limited to suppression with engines, air 
                tankers--fixed-wing aircraft that drop chemical 
                retardant--and other firefighting paraphernalia.
                    (D) In many forest situations, fuel reduction by 
                mechanical removal through careful salvage logging, 
                thinning, or other means will be needed before 
                prescribed fire can be safely utilized.
                    (E) The southern California firestorm of 1993 
                burned nearly two hundred thousand acres, destroyed 
                over one thousand one hundred structures, killed three 
                people and injured over one hundred and sixty, and cost 
                an estimated $1,000,000,000 in suppression efforts, 
                damages, and restoration. Soil erosion, mudslides, 
                wildlife habitat loss, and other damage will leave an 
                unforgotten legacy for years to come.
                    (F) In California, three thousand five hundred 
                homes were destroyed by wildfire between 1920 and 1989, 
                but well over four thousand two hundred were destroyed 
                between 1990 and 1993.
                    (G) In 1992, when twenty-four thousand five hundred 
                acres of prime timber and recreation lands in the 
                Sierra-typical mixed conifer forest, laden with heavy 
                fuels, bone dry from the six-year drought, and 
                suffering from drought stress and insect and disease 
                attack, ignited into a raging firestorm, it turned into 
                the most expensive rural wildfire in California history 
                in just four days. Total estimated value lost was 
                $245,000,000, $16,500,000 in suppression costs, two 
                lives and seventy-two firefighting injuries. After an 
                optimistic salvage recovery, estimated value loss is 
                $5,670 per acre. Cost for preventive fuels treatment 
                average less than $200 per acre.
            (2) Based on recent scientific reports, including the 
        California Spotted Owl Report (CASPO) and the Sierra Nevada 
        Ecosystem Project Progress Report (SNEP), Congress finds:
                    (A) The enormous wildfires awaiting ignition on the 
                public lands of the West can no longer be seen as an 
                uncontrollable act of nature; they will be the direct 
                result of negligence in land management, much of which 
                can be traced to the longstanding aversion to fire in 
                all forms.
                    (B) Major reductions in wildfire extent, damage and 
                cost are possible if effective preventive actions are 
                taken in time.
                    (C) Wildfire must be mitigated by preventive land 
                treatments that reduce fuels, break up large contiguous 
                areas of dangerous conditions, improve building 
                standards, and create defensible spaces between 
                flammable fuels and susceptible buildings.
                    (D) Outstanding late-successional forest areas are 
                often found in the less accessible locations, and the 
                potential for losing them to catastrophic wildfire is 
                very high.
                    (E) Stands once kept open by frequent, low-
                intensity lightning fires have been, as a consequence 
                of fire suppression, highly altered both in structure 
                and function by the development of dense, shade 
                tolerant understories that now place them at risk of 
                high-intensity stand-replacing fire.
                    (F) Efforts to reduce catastrophic fire risk to 
                late-successional forest stands, and to maintain key 
                ecosystem processes and biodiversity, are much more 
                likely to require active management in the Sierra 
                Nevada.
                    (G) Activities which reduce forest fuels will 
                provide interim employment and availability of men and 
                equipment for forest fire suppression.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to immediately reduce the 
risk of wildfire on Federal forest lands in California, immediately 
reduce the number of dead and dying trees, provide access to needed 
funding contained in the Emergency Firefighting Funds, provide access 
to needed funding contained in the Forest Service Emergency Pest 
Suppression Fund, and to develop a strategic fire protection plan with 
associated budget for congressional consideration.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    For the purposes of this Act:
            (1) Natural fuels.--Fuels not directly generated or altered 
        by management activity. This includes fuels that have 
        accumulated as a result of nonmanagement activity such as fire 
        exclusion, or indirectly as a result of management activity 
        such as increased regeneration of brush and trees, resultant 
        epidemic mortality therefrom.
            (2) Extreme fire risk.--Area determined to be extremely 
        vulnerable to wildfire based on a combination of fire history, 
        weather patterns, topography, accessibility, visitor intensity, 
        extent of human settlement, and fuel loads.
            (3) Secretaries.--The term ``Secretaries'' means the 
        Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior.

SEC. 4. DECLARATION OF EMERGENCY.

    The United States Congress declares the reduction of natural fuels, 
on Federal lands within the State of California identified as extreme 
fire risk, to constitute an emergency action to prevent or to reduce 
risk to public health or safety or to serious resource loss. 
Notwithstanding direction in land management plans, Congress directs 
the Federal agencies to work cooperatively with State agencies to 
immediately identify areas of extreme fire risk and take immediate 
action to reduce natural fuels. Congress authorizes the use of 
emergency fire suppression funds to reduce natural fuels in such areas 
provided reductions in the Sierra forests are consistent with the fuels 
management guidelines of the California Spotted Owl EA or subsequent 
EIS, and that fuels reduction activities in roadless areas preserve the 
unique characteristics of such areas. In areas identified as requiring 
additional treatments due to drought or pest infestation on National 
Forest lands, the Forest Service is directed to prepare a budget 
request declaring an emergency, pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(D) of the 
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

SEC. 5. STRATEGIC FIRE PLAN AND BUDGET.

    The Federal agencies are further directed to prepare, in 
consultation and coordination with other Federal agencies and the State 
of California, a strategic fire plan and annual budget. The plan and 
budget shall be submitted to Congress by March 1, 1996, for inclusion 
in the 1997 Appropriations request with a Supplemental Appropriations 
request, if needed, for 1996 funding of natural fuels treatment.
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