[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 23, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9799-S9801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CRAPO (for himself and Mrs. Lincoln):
  S. 1449. A bill to improve the capacity of the Secretary of 
Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to prepare and conduct 
hazardous fuels reduction projects on National Forest System land and 
Bureau of Land Management land that are aimed at protecting 
communities, watersheds, and certain other at-risk land from 
catastrophic wildfire, to enhance efforts to protect watersheds and 
address threats to forest and rangeland health on public and private 
land, including catastrophic wildfire, to increase research on forest 
health and forest-damaging agents, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, Idaho faces grim news this morning as the 
deaths of two young wildland firefighters are reported. They were 
killed late Tuesday afternoon while fighting the Cramer fire in the 
Salmon-Challis National Forest west of the town of Salmon near the 
confluence of the middle fork of the Salmon River and the main Salmon. 
These men are heroes of battle, just as the men and women fighting 
overseas. They fought a faceless, terrifying enemy with bravery, 
heroism, and selfless dedication to the families and communities of 
central Idaho. Their sacrifice will be remembered for years to come as 
their names are added to the list of those fallen in service to their 
country in the capacity of wildland firefighters. I pray that those who 
continue to fight fires in Idaho and across the West this summer remain 
out of harm's way as they perform their valiant and critical work to 
preserve homes, property, and life.
  The tragedy is that two more people have died. We hope it is not 
followed by more as we enter another fire season. The truth is that our 
forests are overgrown, dead and dying, and this kind of tragedy was 
inevitable. Legislation that I supported in the past would have made a 
difference. Had it been enacted last year or the year before, these 
senseless deaths could very well have been avoided. Idaho's wildfire 
season is just getting into its full swing, and we are asking our 
wildland firefighters in Idaho and throughout the rest of the Nation to 
do a dangerous job. We in Congress owe it to them and to the family 
members of those who didn't make it to provide them with the tools 
necessary to get the job done as safely and quickly as possible. These 
deaths are a tragic reminder of the sacrifices and risks wildland 
firefighters make to ensure the safety of our communities. Congress 
must act to reduce this threat to our communities and improve the 
safety of our firefighters. Today, Senator Lincoln and I are 
introducing bipartisan legislation to address the forest health crisis 
facing our nation.
  As Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee's 
Subcommittee on Forestry, Conservation, and Rural Revitalization, 
Senator Lincoln and I have learned of the similarities between the 
problems facing

[[Page S9800]]

the ecosystems of eastern and western forests. We know that when 
Congress acts to address the health of forests in the West--forests 
that have been devastated by fires that garner national attention--we 
must also reduce the risks to our forests across the country. The 
threat is not just to our property and lives, but clean air, clean 
water, and wildlife habitat. We must take a comprehensive approach to 
protecting our resources, and Senator Lincoln and I attempt to do that 
in this bill.
  The America's Healthy Forests Restoration and Research Act builds on 
the bipartisan legislation that passed the House of Representatives and 
is now under consideration in the Senate.
  Like the House proposal, our bill addresses the ``analysis 
paralysis'' that prevents us from taking actions to protect our lands. 
For lands that are at risk of catastrophic fire or that have been 
severely damaged by insect or disease infestations or the aftermath of 
severe weather events, such as windthrow or ice storms, the bill 
creates an expedited process to allow for treatment. For these specific 
projects on Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management lands--with the 
exception of lands that are wilderness areas or Wilderness Study 
Areas--the bill provides for time limits on appeals, reforms the 
appeals process, and provides guidance to the courts.
  The per-acre costs of fuel reduction projects is higher and the 
amount of time to consider a project is longer with each alternative 
the agencies are required to consider. Each of these alternatives 
requires a complete and thorough environmental analysis. By selecting 
projects through the collaborative process and requiring an in-depth 
analysis of the environmental impacts of the specific project, we can 
ensure that the impacts of the project are addressed, without the 
analysis paralysis caused by the examination of additional 
alternatives--especially when projects are most often appealed based on 
failure to complete adequate analysis on alternatives rather than the 
substance of the project.
  The time for action is now, we should not let fuels reduction 
projects be delayed or lose their effectiveness through frivolous 
appeals. By requiring the Forest Service to develop a new process that 
allows for public collaboration, by requiring substantive comments to 
the project, and by requiring participation in the process before 
allowing litigation, the bill ensures that public comment is meaningful 
and constructive. No longer will these important projects be stopped 
simply by 33 cents on a postcard.
  Our bill also requires that the courts balance the long term effects 
with the short term effects of a project. This balance of harm should 
be common sense, but that has not been the case. The courts are 
reminded they should balance the impact of inaction in their decision 
making.
  This streamlining of the appeals and judicial review process will 
counter the growing use of appeals and litigation as delaying and 
frustrating techniques rather than the constructive recourse they were 
intended for. Cutting through the bureaucratic red tape and ensuring 
for robust public participation--as outlined in the widely-supported 
Western Governors Association's collaborative strategy--is a win-win 
for our forests and our communities. In addition, by streamlining the 
process, we get more money on the ground and in action to protect our 
forests. Appeals, litigation, and extensive analysis of unneeded 
alternatives mean less money for projects. Some estimate that only 
sixty percent of funds allocated for fuels reduction actually makes it 
to the ground. Streamlining the process should result in significantly 
more resources to address forest health.
  I have long been an advocate of better utilization of biomass and 
small diameter materials. This bill addresses the need for more 
research and more markets. Our bi-partisan bill provides grants to 
those who would use biomass for fuel or other beneficial purposes. 
Instead of leaving fuels in our forests to burn or tossing them in 
landfills, we can reduce the risks to our environment and create an 
incentive to use what has traditionally not been cost effective to use. 
Unlike the house bill, we expand eligible uses beyond just useful 
fuels. In Idaho, we have companies that can use this material for 
environmental restoration. We need to do more to create incentives to 
use this material.

  To that end, our bill also includes expanded research into 
utilization and harvesting of small diameter materials. Light on the 
land techniques that find more and better uses of biomass and small 
diameter materials can revitalize our rural communities. Research into 
the costs and obstacles to using these materials will go a long way 
toward expanded markets and rural development. The bill also provides 
direction for technology transfer to get this information from the 
universities and scientists to the communities and small businesses in 
rural parts of America.
  Our bipartisan bill makes research a central tenet. From research 
into biomass, forests conditions, upland hardwoods, the measure brings 
a new focus to forest threats. Our legislation expands the research to 
allow for landscape level research on forest-damaging agents. Fire, 
insects and disease, and weather events pose a significant threat to 
our forest ecosystems. The bill provides for cooperation with colleges 
and universities in applied research to combat these threats.
  The bill also focuses research on preserving upland hardwoods. Not 
enough is known about preserving and restoring the upland hardwood 
forests of the South. The creation of an upland hardwood forest 
research center will go a long way toward finding ways to better 
protect, rehabilitate, restore, and utilize these important resources.
  The proposal includes a watershed program that will help foresters 
enhance water quality in our forests. As many know, our forests serve 
as critical watersheds that provide drinking water to our communities. 
This bill provides for grants to allow for technical assistance, 
education, and financial assistance to enhance our efforts to ensure 
clean waters for our communities and wildlife.
  A program to maintain forested habitat for threatened and endangered 
species is also an important part of this legislation. By providing for 
short and long-term restoration agreements the program offers 
incentives to maintain and utilize efforts that protect species and 
prevent others from being listed.
  The legislation provides assistance to address the problem of 
nonnative invasive plants, trees, shrubs, and vines. Across the 
country, the expansion of nonnative invasive plants has changed 
ecosystems making them more susceptible to threats that could result in 
catastrophic fires. Our proposal provides assistance to landowners in 
addressing these invasives.
  Finally, the bill declares that the enhanced community fire 
protection program is an important program in reducing risks to 
communities. This program, which we enacted as part of the 2002 Farm 
Bill, provides assistance to communities in reducing fire threats. 
Providing funding for this program, coupled with the savings from 
streamlining the process, will provide for meaningful progress in 
reducing the wildfire threat.
  I agree with Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, who says we need to 
move the focus from what we take to what we leave. As he has 
identified, too many are looking at this as a zero-sum game. They seek 
someone to blame for forest health problems or argue that logging is 
inherently bad. We need to get beyond that fallacious argument and 
realize that what is important is restoring a healthy ecosystem: an 
ecosystem that allows for a natural fire regime to exist without 
threatening our communities and lives.
  I hope my colleagues will join me moving beyond the narrow focus that 
currently passes for forest policy, this zero-sum game, and look at the 
needs of our forest ecosystems. This bill is a bipartisan effort that 
enhances the House-passed legislation. It sets a mark that the majority 
of the Senate can and should support.
  The skies over Idaho's capitol city, Boise, are smoke-filled this 
afternoon, and another tiny town on the edge of Idaho's Frank Church 
River of No Return Wilderness, Atlanta, is threatened as fire 
encroaches on the homes there. Firefighting resources are stretched to 
the limit as wildland fires are burning throughout Idaho and the West. 
Wildfires this year have charred some 1.46 million acres nationwide. 
The National Interagency Fire Center said there were 49 large fires 
burning in the West, with more than 350 thousand

[[Page S9801]]

areas of active wildfires. Let us in Congress take a stand now to help 
protect our forests and keep them from going up in smoke every year.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to garner their support 
for this much-needed, bipartisan legislation, and know that they join 
me in sending condolences to the families of the two young men who died 
fighting a fire that may very well have been preventable.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I rise today to join my good friend 
Senator Crapo of Idaho in introducing legislation aimed at 
rehabilitating this Nation's public and private forestlands. Senator 
Crapo and I serve as the Chair and Ranking Member of the Agriculture 
Subcommittee on Forestry, and we have worked together extensively in 
watching over our Nation's forestlands.
  Our bipartisan legislation builds upon the Healthy Forest Restoration 
Act, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this year. Our 
bill will ensure that we can address the many problems affecting all of 
our Nation's forests--both on public and private forestlands, in 
southern and western forests, and throughout both hardwood and pine 
ecosystems. Our legislation is intended to be a marker for the 
direction we believe forest legislation should move in this country.
  Both Senator Crapo and I have been working closely with the Senate 
Agriculture Committee to ensure that the goals of our legislation are 
incorporated into the chairman's mark of the Senate's Healthy Forest 
legislation.
  Our legislation is intended to accomplish a few, very specific goals.
  First and foremost, we must provide the Forest Service with the tools 
necessary to immediately address the epidemic of oak decline and 
mortality in the Ozark highlands of Arkansas and Missouri.
  Oak decline is a natural occurrence in older forests or in areas 
where trees are stressed by conditions such as old age, over population 
of the forest, poor soil conditions, and the effects of several years 
of severe drought. And under normal conditions, oak decline is not 
necessarily fatal to the tree.
  However, these conditions have allowed insects such as the red oak 
borer to flourish throughout the forest and has led to an epidemic of 
oak mortality throughout our forests.
  In fact, many estimates now suggest that potentially up to one 
million acres of red oaks have been affected in Ozark highlands. And it 
is important to note that this epidemic has not been long in coming--it 
was only first discovered in the late 1990s. I am concerned that this 
epidemic will lead to a complete loss of red oak from the Ozark 
highlands and cause long-term changes to the health of the forest 
ecosystem.
  It is also important to remember that the epidemic has not been 
limited to public lands. Private forest landowners and homeowners 
throughout the Ozarks face the same problem. The past several years of 
extremely dry summer conditions have weakened trees throughout the 
region.
  The legislation also contains provisions that are intended to 
streamline and improve the environmental, administrative, and judicial 
review process for hazardous fuel reduction projects under this 
legislation. I join Senator Crapo in believing that the review process 
for hazardous fuel reduction projects, while necessary and beneficial, 
often consumes more time, effort, and resources than the initial intent 
of the project.
  I am also aware that there are ongoing discussions regarding these 
environmental, administrative, and judicial review issues. I look 
forward to working with my colleagues on the Agriculture Committee and 
in the entire Senate to modify and improve the environmental, 
administrative, and judicial review provisions of this legislation in 
order to address my colleagues' concerns.
  As we have seen with the epidemic of oak mortality in Arkansas, the 
Forest Service must have the ability to quickly respond to insect 
infestation in order to protect, preserve, and rehabilitate the entire 
forest. Streamlining of the environmental, administrative, and judicial 
review process for hazardous fuel reduction projects will ensure that 
we can quickly address what ails our forests.
  Secondly, our legislation also provides increased funding and 
direction for forestland research in this country. Our legislation will 
ensure that our Nation's colleges and universities are able to devote 
more research into the insects and diseases affecting our forests. We 
also require that any forestland research be conducted at a scale 
appropriate to the forest damage, and that it be conducted within the 
requirements of each individual forest management plan. Our legislation 
also includes requirements to ensure this research has clearly stated 
forest restoration objectives and is peer reviewed by scientific 
experts in forestland health.
  Our legislation includes authorization for a new upland hardwood 
research center designed to study the myriad of insects, disease, and 
problems affecting our ability to rehabilitate, restore, and utilize 
our upland hardwood forests. As we have seen, Arkansas was caught 
almost flatfooted as the epidemic of oak mortality swept through the 
Ozarks and severely endangered the health of our forests. Establishing 
this new research center will help ensure that this does not happen 
again.

  The new research center will specifically research the effects of 
pests and pathogens on upland hardwoods, hardwood stand regeneration 
and reproductive biology, upland hardwood stand management and forest 
health, threatened, endangered and sensitive aquatic and terrestrial 
fauna, ecological processes and hardwood ecosystem restoration, and 
education and outreach to nonindustrial private forest landowners and 
associations.
  The establishment of this new research center is necessary to ensure 
we can quickly identify and respond to the multitude of pests, disease, 
and other damaging agents that can dramatically affect our beloved 
forests.
  Third, our legislation also includes funding for emergency grants to 
immediately remove the invasive plants that have become so pervasive 
throughout this Nation's forests. And when we talk about invasive plant 
species in the South, we are talking about one thing--Kudzu. Some call 
it the vine that ate the South. Kudzu was brought into this country 
several decades ago to be used as cover for bare hillsides and has 
since spread to cover everything including shrubs, bushes, and entire 
trees. The grant program included in our legislation will provide the 
means for landowners to immediately remove kudzu and the myriad other 
invasive plants that are choking out our forests.
  Finally, our legislation also includes widely agreed upon language 
that would provide for grants to remove non-commercial biomass from our 
private forested watersheds, and provide for grants to establish 
private, healthy forest reserves throughout the nation. Many of these 
important provisions were included in the Senate-passed farm bill last 
year, but they were not included in the final legislation, 
unfortunately. Providing grants to remove noncommercial biomass will 
immediately reduce the amount of fuel on the forest floor and directly 
reduce the fire danger in our forests and around our communities. 
Similarly, providing grants to protect our forest watersheds will 
ensure that we can address our water quality concerns with a voluntary, 
incentive based approach. And finally, providing funding to establish 
new healthy forest reserves from willing private landowners will 
encourage the preservation and rehabilitation of this Nation's 
forestlands.
  Mr. President, I believe that our bipartisan legislation will focus 
needed attention on a number of extremely critical goals for our 
national forest policy. One lesson that we have learned over the years 
is that if we value our forests, if want to conserve our woodland and 
resources, if we want to preserve their natural beauty, if we want to 
ensure that the natural bounty of our forestlands is available to 
future generations, then it is important that we manage those lands and 
resources with a careful eye toward their long-term health.

                          ____________________