[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 25 (Thursday, March 2, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E267-E268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOREST INSECTS RESPONSE ENHANCEMENT AND SUPPORT ACT 
                       (ROCKY MOUNTAIN FIRES ACT)

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 2, 2006

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, with my Colorado colleague, 
Representative John Salazar, I today am introducing a bill to help 
protect Rocky Mountain communities from the increased risks of severe 
wildfire caused by large-scale infestations of bark beetles and other 
insects in our forests.
  Entitled the Rocky Mountain Forest Insects Response Enhancement and 
Support--or Rocky Mountain FIRES--Act, the bill will provide the Forest 
Service and Interior Department with more tools and resources to 
respond to this serious problem.
  In Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states, the risk of severe 
wildfires is very real. Partly, this is because of drought. But there 
are other contributing factors. One is that for many years, the federal 
government's policy emphasized fire suppression, 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 thick stands of 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. The problem has been made worse by our growing 
population and increasing development in the places where communities 
meet the forests--the so-called ``urban interface.'' And when you add 
the effects of widespread infestations of insects, you have a recipe 
for even worse to come.
  I have put a priority on reducing the wildfire risks to our 
communities since I was elected to Congress. In 2000, with my 
colleague, Representative Hefley, I introduced legislation to 
facilitate reducing the buildup of fuel in the parts of Colorado that 
the Forest Service, working with state and local partners, identified 
at greatest risk of fire--the so-called ``red zones.''
  Concepts from that legislation were included in the National Fire 
Plan developed by the Clinton Administration and were also incorporated 
into the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. As a Member of the 
Resources Committee, I had worked to develop the version of that 
legislation that the committee approved in 2002, and while I could not 
support the different version initially passed by the House in 2003, I 
voted for the revised version developed in conference with the Senate 
later that year--the version that President Bush signed into law.
  Since 2003 welcome progress has been made--in Colorado, at least--in 
developing community wildfire protection plans and focusing fuel-
reduction projects in the priority ``red zone'' areas, two important 
aspects of the new law.
  But at the same time nature has continued to add to the buildup of 
fuel in the form of both new growth and dead and dying mature trees.
  This has resulted from a variety of reasons, including the fact that 
dense stands of even-aged trees (one result of decades of fire 
suppression and reduced logging) are stressed by the competition for 
nutrients. This stress, which has been intensified by the effects of 
the drought that has plagued the west for nearly a decade, makes these 
stands less able to resist insects.
  Many species of bark beetles, such as the mountain pine beetle, are 
native to our forests. These insects fly to a tree--typically one that 
may be weakened by age, disease or lack of water and nutrients--where 
they burrow through the bark. If the tree is healthy, it can defend 
itself through the production of sap to repel and expel the invading 
insect. If the insect is successful, it lays its eggs in the woody 
material below the bark. Once the eggs hatch, they feed on the tree's 
fiber and disrupt the flow of water and nutrients from the tree's roots 
to its needles and braches. In addition, the insects bring in fungi and 
other invaders that further damage the tree. If enough insects are able 
to penetrate the tree and lay eggs, the tree dies. The offspring then 
mature and leave the tree flying to the next tree and the cycle begins 
anew.
  These insects and the cycles they engender are a natural component of 
forest ecosystems. They help to balance tree densities and set the 
stage for fires and thereby the generation of new tree growth. When 
forests are healthy and there are adequate supplies of water, the 
effects of insects are relatively low-scale and isolated. But under the 
right conditions-such as during drought conditions or when there are 
dense stands of even aged trees--the insects can cause large-scale tree 
mortality, turning whole mountainsides and valleys rust red.
  That is what has been happening in many mountainous areas in 
Colorado. For example, in the Fraser and upper Colorado River Valleys 
north of the Winter Park Ski area, the insect epidemic has decimated 
wide swaths of forests. Most alarmingly, areas around populated 
communities in these valleys from Winter Park all the way up to the 
west side of Rocky Mountain National Park are living with acres of dead 
trees, turned rust red by the insects and creating intense concern of a 
catastrophic wildfire that could race through these landscapes and 
communities.
  To learn more, last year I convened a meeting in Winter Park, in 
Grand County, that was attended by more than 200 people, including 
local elected officials, homeowners, timber industry representatives, 
Forest Service officials, ski area employees, and other Coloradans. 
They offered observations on the extent of this problem and proffered 
suggestions on ways to better respond to it.
  Based on that meeting and other conversations, draft legislation was 
developed that Representative Salazar and I circulated widely so we 
could obtain further comments and suggestions. The bill we are 
introducing today reflects much of what we heard from Coloradans and 
others interested in this subject.
  Our goal is not to eradicate insects in our forests--nor should it 
be, because insects are a natural part of forest ecosystems. Instead, 
our intention is to make it possible for there to be more rapid 
responses to the insect epidemic in those areas where such responses 
are needed in order to protect communities from increased wildfire 
dangers.
  The bill would add a new section to the Healthy Forests Act to 
specifically address insect epidemics like those now visible in the 
Fraser and upper Colorado River Valleys. It would apply to the entire 
Rocky Mountain west. It would authorize the Forest Service to identify 
as ``insect emergency areas'' Federal lands that have already been 
slated for fuel-reduction work in community wildfire protection plans 
and that have so many insect-killed trees that there is an urgent need 
for work to reduce the fire-related risks to human life and property or 
municipal water supplies. The Forest Service could make such a 
determination on its own initiative or in response to a request from 
any State agency or any political subdivision (such as a county, city, 
or other local government) of a State. If the Forest Service receives 
such a request, it must make a decision in response within 90 days. A 
designation must be made by a Regional Forester or higher-ranking 
official of the Forest Service.
  In these emergency areas, the Forest Service or Interior Department 
would be authorized to remove dead or dying trees on an expedited 
basis, including use of a ``categorical exclusion'' from normal review 
under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

[[Page E268]]

  Although categorical exclusions from NEPA are controversial, I 
believe they are appropriate for these emergency situations. And 
because recent lawsuits have led to some confusion about the 
relationship of Forest Service categorical exclusions and the Appeals 
Reform Act, the bill would exempt such categorically-excluded projects 
in insect emergency areas from the Appeals Reform Act. This would make 
it clear that the projects categorically excluded in an insect 
emergency situation would not need to go through additional steps in 
order to enhance the rapid use of such categorically excluded projects.
  As the focus of the bill is on the potential fire threats to 
communities from insect-killed tress and the encouragement of treatment 
projects in the ``community wildfire protection plan'' areas, the bill 
also includes provisions to help communities establish such plans.
  Toward that end, the bill includes language to make clear that 
development of protection plans qualifies for assistance under the 
Federal Fire Protection and Control Act. And, more importantly, the 
bill provides that annually for the next five years $5 million will be 
diverted from the federal government's share of royalties for onshore 
federal oil and gas resources and made available to help Rocky Mountain 
communities develop their protection plans.
  At the meeting in Winter Park last fall, I also heard concerns from 
private landowners who are doing what they can to reduce fuel loads, 
cut down insect-killed trees, and otherwise mitigate the fire risks on 
their lands.
  Because some of them would like to be able to do similar work on 
adjacent National Forest lands, the bill makes clear that the Forest 
Service can award them stewardship contract or enter into agreements 
authorizing them to do that carry out fuel-reduction work on those 
lands, subject to terms and conditions set by the Forest Service. Those 
arrangements could provide for reimbursement by the government for 
their work, and the bill specifies that if their work is not 
reimbursed, it will be treated as a donation to the government for 
income-tax purposes, meaning it is deductible from income tax by people 
who itemize their deductions.
  The bill would also encourage the Forest Service to establish 
``central collection points'' where trees and other vegetative material 
could be deposited and made available for further uses as fuel or 
products.
  Also at the Winter Park meeting, I heard that there are some barriers 
to the private sector in doing the treatment work on Forest Service 
land. So, the bill would allow the Forest Service to extend the length 
of time for stewardship contracts for thinning work in insect-emergency 
areas by as much as an additional 5 years beyond the current 10 year 
limit.
  This could help attract more entities willing to do the needed 
treatment work in these emergency areas, as could another part of the 
bill that would allow people carrying out fuel-reduction projects in 
insect-emergency areas to exclude up to $10,000 ($20,000 for joint 
returns) from the amount of their income subject to federal income tax.
  Finally, as trees removed to reduce fuel loads or respond to an 
insect emergency may have some value as a fuel, the bill would 
authorize the Forest Service to make grants to owners or operators of 
facilities that convert the removed trees and other vegetative material 
into energy.
  Although we cannot and should not eradicate insects from our forests, 
we can and we should strive to help reduce the increased wildfire risks 
to communities that result from their increased infestations. The 
purpose of this bill is to provide some additional tools and resources 
that will enable relevant federal agencies, local communities, and 
residents of the Rocky Mountain region to better respond to this 
problem. For the benefit of our colleague, I am attaching a short 
outline of the bill's provisions.
  The bill has 8 sections, as follows:
  Section One--provides a short title and table of contents. The short 
title is ``Rocky Mountain Forest Insects Response Enhancement and 
Support (or Rocky Mountain FIRES) Act.''
  Section Two--sets forth finding regarding the need for the 
legislation, and states the bill's purpose, which is to facilitate a 
swifter response by the Forest Service and Interior Department to 
reduce the increased risk of severe wildfires to communities in the 
Rocky Mountain regions caused by the effects of widespread infestations 
of bark beetles and other insects.
  Section Three--amends the Healthy Forests Restoration Act to: Add 
definitions of terms; Require that in the Rocky Mountain region at 
least 70% of the funds allocated for hazardous fuel reduction projects 
be used for projects in the wildland-urban interface and lands near 
municipal water supplies or their tributaries that have been identified 
for treatment in a community wildfire protection plan; Provide for 
designation of insect-emergency areas by the Forest Service; Specify 
the effect of designation of insect-emergency areas; Specifically 
authorize the Forest Service to relocate or reassign personnel to 
respond to an insect emergency; Clarify the relationship of this part 
of the bill and the Appeals Reform Act; (The bill defines ``Rocky 
Mountain region'' as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.)
  Section Four--amends Healthy Forests Restoration Act to authorize 
help to communities preparing or revising wildfire protection plans, 
and provides for annual diversion (for five years) of $5 million from 
federal share of royalties from onshore federal oil and gas 
developments to fund this assistance.
  Section Five--amends Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 
to clarify that development of community wildfire protection plans 
qualifies for assistance under that Act.
  Section Six--amends biomass-grant provision of Healthy Forests 
Restoration Act to allow grants to facilities using biomass for wood-
based products or other commercial purposes (in addition to uses now 
specified in the Act); to require that priority go to grants to people 
using biomass removed from insectemergency areas; to increase 
authorization to $10 million annually through 2010 (instead of $5 
million annually through 2008); and to provide for establishment of 
central collection points for material removed from forest lands as 
part of hazardous-fuel reduction projects.
  Section Seven--amends the Healthy Forests Restoration Act to 
specifically authorize Forest Service and Interior Department to award 
stewardship contracts to owners of lands contiguous to Federal lands 
(or enter into agreements with such landowners) so the landowners can 
do fuel-reduction work on the Federal lands and either be reimbursed 
for such work or authorized to treat value of such work as a donation 
to the United States for purposes of federal income taxes.
  Section Eight--amends Internal Revenue Code to exclude from taxable 
income up to $10,000 ($20,000 for joint return) received from the 
Federal government as compensation for work done in the Rocky Mountain 
Region as part of an authorized hazardous-fuel reduction project or a 
silvicultural assessment done under section 404 of the Healthy Forests 
Restoration Act.

                          ____________________