117 S1734 IS: National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021 U.S. Senate 2021-05-20 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.

II117th CONGRESS1st SessionS. 1734IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESMay 20, 2021Mr. Wyden (for himself, Mr. Manchin, Ms. Cantwell, and Mrs. Feinstein) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural ResourcesA BILLTo direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title; table of contents

(a)

Short title

This Act may be cited as the National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021.(b)

Table of contents

The table of contents for this Act is as follows:Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.Sec. 2. Findings.Sec. 3. Definitions.TITLE I—Use of FundsSec. 101. Prescribed fire accounts.Sec. 102. Policies and practices.Sec. 103. Collaborative prescribed fire program.Sec. 104. Large cross-boundary prescribed fire incentive program.TITLE II—Facilitating Implementation and OutreachSec. 201. Cooperative agreements and contracts.Sec. 202. Human resources.Sec. 203. Liability of certified prescribed fire managers.Sec. 204. Environmental review.Sec. 205. Prescribed fire education program.TITLE III—Reporting; TerminationSec. 301. Annual reports to the National Fire Planning and Operations Database.Sec. 302. Termination date.

2.

Findings

Congress finds that—(1)in 2018, the Forest Service Fire Modeling Institute determined that 63,070,000 acres of National Forest System land and 171,200,000 acres of other forest land were at high or very high risk of experiencing a wildfire that would be difficult to suppress;(2)according to the National Interagency Coordination Center, between 2009 and 2018, in the United States, on average—(A)67,000 wildfires burned 7,000,000 acres annually; and(B)86,345 prescribed fires burned only 3,000,000 acres annually;(3)indigenous communities have used controlled burns to manage landscapes since time immemorial; (4)according to the National Interagency Coordination Center, the annual cost of suppressing wildfires in a State with an active prescribed burning program is less than 1 percent of the annual cost of suppressing wildfires in a State without an active prescribed burning program, despite each State having the same number of wildfires;(5)according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of Forestry, on a given acre, a prescribed fire burning in April or May produces less than 1/5 of the smoke emissions of a wildfire that would burn on that acre in August;(6)according to a 2019 study conducted by Stanford University, smoke from prescribed fires exposes children to fewer negative health effects than the detrimental smoke generated by wildfires; (7)according to a 2015 study published in Ecology, trees that have not been burnt by a low-intensity fire are unusually prone to bark beetle attacks, and between 2000 and 2010, bark beetles killed the majority of trees on 32,000,000 acres of the 193,000,000 acres of National Forest System land;(8)as of September 30, 2019, there were—(A)37 prescribed fire councils in 33 States; and(B)64 prescribed burn associations in 11 States; (9)according to the 2018 National Prescribed Fire Use Survey Report—(A)37 States regulate prescribed fires by issuing burn permits;(B)23 States offer prescribed burn manager certification courses to facilitate responsible burning on private land; (C)only 5 States (Vermont, Massachusetts, Missouri, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) lack laws to reduce liability associated with the responsible use of prescribed fire; and(D)only 8 States (Florida, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington) have laws that use a standard of gross negligence for determining liabilities for the responsible use of prescribed fire; and(10)as of September 30, 2019, 31 States have a formal process to track the number of acres treated for forestry purposes using prescribed fire.

3.

Definitions

In this Act:(1)

Federal land

The term Federal land means—(A)public land (as defined in section 103 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702));(B)units of the National Park System;(C)units of the National Wildlife Refuge System;(D)land held in trust by the United States for the benefit of Indian Tribes or members of an Indian Tribe; and(E)land in the National Forest System.(2)

National Forest System

(A)

In general

The term National Forest System has the meaning given the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).(B)

Exclusion

The term National Forest System does not include—(i)the national grasslands and land utilization projects administered under title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (7 U.S.C. 1010 et seq.); or(ii)National Forest System land east of the 100th meridian.(3)

Prescribed fire

The term prescribed fire means a fire deliberately ignited to burn wildland fuels in a natural or modified state—(A)under specified environmental conditions that allow the fire to be confined to a predetermined area and produce the fireline intensity and rate of spread required to attain planned resource management objectives; and(B)in accordance with applicable law, including applicable regulations.(4)

Secretaries

The term Secretaries means—(A)the Secretary; and(B)the Secretary of Agriculture.(5)

Secretary

The term Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior.