[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 100 (Thursday, July 27, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1375-E1376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE NORTHERN FRONT RANGE ROADLESS AREA AND MOUNTAIN 
 BACKDROP PROTECTION ACT AND THE COLORADO FOREST RESTORATION AND FIRE 
                             REDUCTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 27, 2000

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, Colorado's forest lands are one 
of the things that makes our state a very special place to live. But as 
our population increases, so do the pressures on our forests and the 
potential damage that can result from intense wildfires

[[Page E1376]]

in the areas where residential areas press against the forests.
  Today, I am introducing two bills that respond to at least some 
aspects of these two serious problems. One will provide protection for 
roadless areas in the Congressional District I represent. The other 
would put new emphasis on cooperative efforts to restore forest lands 
and prevent catastrophic forest fires in areas of high risk throughout 
Colorado.


                     PROTECTION FOR ROADLESS AREAS

  The first bill is the Northern Front Range Roadless Area and Mountain 
Backdrop Protection Act. Under that bill, the Forest Service would 
manage over 80,000 acres on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest as 
``protected roadless areas.'' All of these areas are within Colorado's 
Second Congressional District. They are areas that the Forest Service 
identified as roadless in its 1997 Revision of the Land and Resource 
Management Plan for the Arapaho-Roosevelt. Most of these areas would be 
appropriate additions to existing wilderness areas, and they are also 
included in President Clinton's Roadless Conservation Proposal for the 
national forests.
  The Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest is within a few minutes drive 
for more than 2.5 million people in the Front Range Denver-metro area. 
As a result, it is experiencing increasing use of all kinds, especially 
recreational use. I have supported the President's roadless area 
initiative in part because I know how those increasing pressures are 
affecting the Arapaho-Roosevelt and the other national forests in 
Colorado. And, with respect to relevant lands within my own 
Congressional District, I want to build on what the President has 
proposed. So, my first bill would undergird the President's initiative 
with a statutory requirement that the Forest Service manage these areas 
to preserve their roadless qualities until Congress determines 
otherwise.
  With this interim protection in place, the bill would also require 
the Forest Service to study and evaluate these areas and then make 
recommendations to Congress regarding their future management. That 
report would be submitted within three years. In the meantime, and 
until Congress decides otherwise, these roadless areas would be managed 
under the ``recommended for wilderness'' management category in the 
Forest Plan, and require the Forest Service to study and report to 
Congress in three years about management options for these lands. The 
report would include recommendations about the suitability of 
wilderness designation for some or all of these lands but can also 
include any other recommendations the Secretary of Agriculture decides 
to make. The bill will thus maintain all options and allow the Congress 
to ultimately resolve the status of these roadless lands.


                  ROCKY FLATS MOUNTAIN BACKDROP STUDY

  The bill also contains a section intended to help local communities 
preserve the Front Range Mountain Backdrop just west of the Rocky Flats 
Environmental Technology site.
  As all Coloradans know, Rocky Flats is just a few miles north and 
west of Denver. Once, it was a nuclear weapons production facility. But 
now that mission is over and the task of the Rocky Flats workforce is 
to carry out a thorough, prompt, and effective cleanup and closure. I 
strongly support that effort, and am also working to have the prairie 
land within the site's 6,500 acres protected as wildlife habitat and 
open space. But I think we need to look beyond the site's perimeters.
  So far, development in the Denver-metro area has not yet surrounded 
the Rocky Flats site. However, growth and sprawl are heading its way. 
Now is the time to shape the future of this part of the Front Range, 
and I think we have a real but fleeting opportunity to establish Rocky 
Flats and lands to its west as a ``crown jewel'' of open space and 
wildlife habitat that will be of inestimable value for Coloradans for 
generations to come. I also think the federal government can help 
achieve that goal. So, my bill would call on the Forest Service to 
examine the land ownership patterns west of Rocky Flats, identify lands 
that are undeveloped, and recommend options on how these areas could be 
preserved.


               FOREST RESTORATION AND WILDFIRE PREVENTION

  The second bill I am introducing is the Colorado Forest Restoration 
and Fire Reduction Act. This bill complements the roadless-area 
protection bill by addressing some of the most pressing forest issues 
in other areas--the parts of Colorado's forests that adjoin urban 
development and that are at greatest risk for intense fires that can 
despoil watersheds and destroy homes.
  As the news headlines continue to report, wildfires on national 
forests and other forested lands are a serious problem this summer--
especially in Colorado. Right now, a major fire is still burning at the 
Mesa Verde National Park, another fire threatens the watershed of 
Glenwood Springs, and people are trying to recover from earlier fires 
that destroyed homes in areas of the Front Range.
  Part of the problem results from hot, dry weather. But there are 
other, contributing factors. For many years, the Forest Service had a 
policy of trying to suppress nearly every fire, even though fire is an 
inescapable part of the ecology of western forests like those in 
Colorado. Today, in many parts of the forests there is an accumulation 
of underbrush and small diameter trees that is greater than would be 
the case if there had been more, smaller fires over the years. They 
provide the extra fuel that can turn a small fire into an intense 
inferno. Add to that our growing population and increasing development 
in the places where communities meet the forests--the so-called ``urban 
interface''--and you have a recipe for worse problems ahead.
  Properties, lives, and wildlife habitat are at risk, and so is the 
environment. Uncontrolled wildfires strip the land of its protective 
vegetative cover, making it highly susceptible to erosion. We have seen 
what that means in places like Buffalo Creek, where the eventual rain 
storms wash sediment and forest material into waterways, polluting and 
clogging sources of drinking water. In addition, wildfires also have 
serious adverse effects on the quality of the air.
  Working with state and local partners, including our state forest 
service, the U.S. Forest Service has identified the interface areas at 
greatest risk of fire--the areas they call the ``red zone.'' My second 
bill deals just with those areas.
  Red zone areas in Colorado are situated in regions that contain 
complex land ownership patterns--frequently involving federal, state, 
Tribal, county, private and city lands. Those patterns make it 
difficult for any one agency to deal with the problem and so makes the 
problem that more intense. My bill would address these problems by 
establishing a program to share costs and provide incentives for 
collaborative efforts at forest restoration and fire-prevention 
projects in the red zone.
  The bill calls on the Forest Service to work with state and local 
agencies, independent scientists, and stakeholder groups to identify 
priorities and develop projects for forest restoration and fire 
prevention. The bill spells out clear and sound requirements that such 
projects would have to meet to be eligible for funding--including 
preservation of old trees and trees larger than 12" in diameter. It 
also specifies that preservation of roadless areas would be required, 
and that all projects would have to meet the requirements of all 
federal and state environmental laws.
  To help assure the integrity of the program, the bill would require 
establishment of a technical advisory panel, including independent 
scientists as well as representatives of relevant agencies and 
stakeholder groups, to provide additional guidelines and set 
priorities. It would also require that the projects authorized under 
the bill be monitored and evaluated for their benefits and any 
potential adverse impacts to make sure the program is working as 
intended. The bill also authorizes funding to provide the federal share 
of the costs of the projects developed and implemented under the 
program.
  Ultimately, the objective of this bill is to develop new 
collaborative relationships between the Forest Service and state, local 
and private forest experts and landowners--together with the public--to 
get out on the land and address problems before they become 
uncontrollable. The theory of this bill is that it is cheaper and more 
effective to prevent fires than to fight them. Reducing fire risks and 
restoring natural balance on our forested lands can help us accomplish 
that goal.
  Mr. Speaker, these bills were not written overnight and they do not 
reflect just my own ideas. In developing them, I have drawn upon the 
technical expertise of federal and state agencies and have consulted 
with members of the Colorado conservation community as well as with 
other Coloradans who are familiar with the resources, values, and 
problems of our forests. I think these bills are sound, balanced 
measures that can help address some of the most pressing of those 
problems. I look forward to working with other Members of the Colorado 
delegation and the Congress as a whole to achieve the important goals 
of this legislation.

                          ____________________