[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 107 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. CON. RES. 107

Expressing the sense of Congress that Federal land management agencies 
should fully support the Western Governors Association ``Collaborative 
 10-year Strategy for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and 
 the Environment'', as signed August 2001, to reduce the overabundance 
     of forest fuels that place national resources at high risk of 
catastrophic wildfire, and prepare a National Prescribed Fire Strategy 
                    that minimizes risks of escape.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 7, 2002

  Mr. Craig (for himself and Mrs. Feinstein) submitted the following 
 concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 
                         and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of Congress that Federal land management agencies 
should fully support the Western Governors Association ``Collaborative 
 10-year Strategy for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and 
 the Environment'', as signed August 2001, to reduce the overabundance 
     of forest fuels that place national resources at high risk of 
catastrophic wildfire, and prepare a National Prescribed Fire Strategy 
                    that minimizes 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 15 firefighters;
Whereas more than 7,400,000 acres burned during the 2000 wildfire season--
        equivalent to a six-mile-wide swath from Washington, D.C., to Los 
        Angeles, California--destroying 861 structures, killing 16 firefighters, 
        and costing the Federal Government $1,300,000,000 in suppression costs;
Whereas an April 1999 General Accounting Office report to the United States 
        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 April 2000 United States 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 United 
        States 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 using 
        prescribed burning as the sole forest fuel reduction practice 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) and Montana (HJ 22) in 
        2001;
Whereas the Western Governors Association's ``Collaborative 10-year Strategy for 
        Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment'' was 
        signed in 2001; and
Whereas in 2000, the United States Congress provided an unprecedented 
        $2,900,000,000 in funding for the United States Departments of 
        Agriculture and Interior wildfire fire fighting agencies 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 Senate (the House of Representatives 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 implement the Western Governors 
                Association's ``Collaborative 10-year Strategy for 
                Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the 
                Environment'', as signed August 2001, 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 small-scale 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 Departments of Agriculture and the Interior should 
        immediately prepare for public review a national prescribed 
        fire strategy for public lands that creates a process for 
        evaluation of worst-case scenarios for risk of escape and 
        identifies alternatives that will achieve land management 
        objectives while minimizing the risk associated with prescribed 
        fire; and
            (3) a national prescribed fire strategy for public lands as 
        described in paragraph (2) should be incorporated into any 
        regulatory land use planning programs that propose the use of 
        prescribed fire as a management practice.
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