[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 352 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 352


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 23, 2002

 Received and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
                                Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of Congress that Federal land management agencies 
should fully support the ``Collaborative 10-year Strategy for Reducing 
Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment'' as prepared by 
the Western Governors' Association, the Department of Agriculture, the 
   Department of the Interior, and other stakeholders, to reduce the 
  overabundance of forest fuels that place national resources at high 
  risk of catastrophic wildfire, and prepare a national assessment of 
       prescribed burning practices to minimize risks of escape.

Whereas catastrophic wildfires not only cause environmental damage to forests 
        and other lands but place the lives of firefighters at risk and pose 
        threats to human health, personal property, sustainable ecosystems, 
        wildlife habitat, and air and water quality;
Whereas upon completion of the 2001 wildfire season, 81,681 fires burned 
        3,555,138 acres, which threatened rural communities nationwide and 
        killed 18 firefighters;
Whereas 8,422,237 acres burned during the 2000 wildfire season--equivalent to a 
        6-mile-wide area from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, California--
        destroying 861 structures, killing 17 firefighters, and costing the 
        Federal Government $1,300,000,000 in suppression costs;
Whereas upon completion of the 1999 wildfire season, 93,702 fires burned 
        5,661,976 acres nationwide and killed 28 firefighters;
Whereas an April 1999 General Accounting Office report to the House of 
        Representatives entitled ``Western National Forests: A Cohesive Strategy 
        is Needed to Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats'' (GAO/RCED-99-65) 
        states that ``The most extensive and serious problem related to the 
        health of national forests in the interior West is the overaccumulation 
        of vegetation, which has caused an increasing number of large, intense, 
        uncontrollable and catastrophically destructive wildfires'';
Whereas an October 2000 Forest Service report entitled ``Protecting People and 
        Sustaining Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosystems: A Cohesive Strategy'', 
        in response to the 1999 General Accounting Office report, confirms the 
        previous report's conclusion and further warns that ``Without increased 
        restoration treatments..., wildfire suppression costs, natural resource 
        losses, private property losses, and environmental damage are certain to 
        escalate as fuels continue to accumulate and more acres become high-
        risk'';
Whereas the July 2001 General Accounting Office testimony entitled ``The 
        National Fire Plan: Federal Agencies Are Not Organized to Effectively 
        and Efficiently Implement the Plan'' (GAO-01-1022T) before the House of 
        Representatives Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health reported that 
        ``The Federal Government's decades-old policy of suppressing all 
        wildland fires, including naturally occurring ones, have resulted in 
        dangerous accumulations of hazardous fuels on Federal lands. As a 
        result, conditions on 211,000,000 acres, or almost one-third of all 
        Federal lands, continue to deteriorate'' and ``[t]he list of at-risk 
        communities ballooned to over 22,000'';
Whereas the escaped prescribed burn that created the Cerro Grande Fire in May 
        2000, that consumed 48,000 acres and destroyed 400 homes with losses 
        exceeding $1,000,000,000 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the escaped 
        prescribed burn that created the Lowden Fire in 1999 that destroyed 23 
        homes in Lewiston, California, highlight the unacceptable risks of over 
        reliance on prescribed burning by Federal land management agencies;
Whereas similar catastrophic wildfire resolutions were passed by the California 
        Legislature (AJR 69) and Western Legislative Forestry Task Force (R00-1) 
        in 2000 and Oregon (HJM 22), Idaho (SJM 104), Montana (HJ 22) in 2001, 
        and South Dakota (HCR 1018) in 2002; and
Whereas in 2000, Congress provided an unprecedented $2,900,000,000 in funding 
        for wildlife firefighting agencies of the United States Department of 
        Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to prepare for future 
        fire-suppression efforts and take proactive steps to reduce wildfire 
        risk on all Federal lands: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) in the interest of protecting the integrity and 
        posterity of United States forests and wildlands, wildlife 
        habitats, watersheds, air quality, human health and safety, and 
        private property, the Forest Service and other Federal land 
        management agencies should--
                    (A) fully support the ``Collaborative 10-year 
                Strategy for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to 
                Communities and the Environment'' as prepared by the 
                Western Governors' Association, the Department of 
                Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and other 
                stakeholders, to reduce the overabundance of forest 
                fuels that place these resources at high risk of 
                catastrophic wildfire;
                    (B) use an appropriate mix of fire prevention 
                activities and management practices, including forest 
                restoration, thinning of at-risk forest stands, 
                grazing, selective tree removal, and other measures to 
                control insects and pathogens, removal of excessive 
                ground fuels, and prescribed burns;
                    (C) increase the role for private, local, and State 
                contracts for fuel reduction treatments on Federal 
                forest lands and adjoining private properties; and
                    (D) pursue more effective fire suppression on 
                Federal forest lands through increased funding of 
                mutual aid agreements with professional State and local 
                public fire fighting agencies;
            (2) in the interest of forest protection and public safety, 
        the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department 
        of the Interior should immediately prepare for public review a 
        national assessment of prescribed burning practices on public 
        lands to identify alternatives that will achieve land 
        management objectives to minimize risks associated with 
        prescribed fire; and
            (3) results from the national assessment of prescribed 
        burning practices on public lands as described in paragraph (2) 
        should be incorporated into any regulatory land use planning 
        programs that pro

pose the use of prescribed fire as a management practice.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 22, 2002.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.