[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 116 (Wednesday, July 11, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H6067-H6069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1445
                CROOKED RIVER RANCH FIRE PROTECTION ACT

  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 2075) to adjust the eastern boundary of the Deschutes 
Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area in the State of Oregon to 
facilitate fire prevention and response activities in order to protect 
adjacent private property, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 2075

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Crooked River Ranch Fire 
     Protection Act''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:
       (1) The Crooked River Ranch is an unincorporated community 
     with a population of 5,000 residents.
       (2) The current lands located adjacent to Crooked River 
     Ranch are managed by the Bureau of Land Management and are 
     classified as a Wilderness Study Area.
       (3) There is currently only one entrance/exit to the 
     Crooked River Ranch.
       (4) Jefferson County and Crooked River Ranch have 
     determined that the Wilderness Study Area lands are in the 
     highest risk category for exposure to devastating wildfire 
     due to overstocked juniper stands under the federally 
     mandated and locally promulgated Jefferson County Community 
     Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).
       (5) The current Wilderness Study Area classification 
     prevents mechanical fire prevention activities within the 
     overstocked juniper stands.
       (6) Advancing this proposed legislation will greatly 
     enhance the life and safety of people and property by 
     reducing the extreme fire threat to these lands.

[[Page H6068]]

  


     SEC. 3. BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT, DESCHUTES CANYON-STEELHEAD FALLS 
                   AND DESCHUTES CANYON WILDERNESS STUDY AREAS, 
                   OREGON.

       (a) Boundary Adjustment Required.--The Secretary of the 
     Interior shall adjust the eastern boundary of the Deschutes 
     Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area and the 
     Deschutes Canyon Wilderness Study Area in the State of Oregon 
     to exclude approximately 832 acres, as depicted on the map 
     entitled ``Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study 
     Area'' and dated April 6, 2017, in order to facilitate fire 
     prevention and response activities on the excluded public 
     lands and adjacent private property.
       (b) Effect of Exclusion.--Effective on the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the public lands to be excluded from 
     the Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area 
     and the Deschutes Canyon Wilderness Study Area pursuant to 
     subsection (a) are no longer subject to section 603(c) of the 
     Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 
     1782(c)).

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Grijalva) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.


                             General Leave

  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, Crooked River Ranch is a residential community that is 
home to approximately 5,500 people. It is located between the Deschutes 
and Crooked Rivers in Jefferson County, Oregon. Because of this 
geography, there is only one all-weather road in and out of Crooked 
River Ranch.
  Now, right next to this community, along the Deschutes River, is a 
roughly 3,200-acre Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study 
Area, which is managed--or, more accurately, is mismanaged--by the 
Bureau of Land Management. This BLM property is thick with vegetation, 
which poses a very real risk for catastrophic wildfires, in large part 
because the wilderness study area regulations greatly restrict 
essential measures for both fire mitigation and firefighting.
  For example, in a wilderness or wilderness study area, you can't use 
mechanized or motorized equipment or transport. This includes chainsaws 
as well as electrical generators, trucks, and larger equipment 
essential to fuels management. You can't even use this equipment to cut 
fire breaks. You can't build fire roads. You can't do mechanical 
thinning of vegetation. Even the hand thinning that is allowed in such 
areas is very limited.
  Absent a waiver from the Secretary of the Interior, firefighters 
can't drop fire retardant or use bulldozers to cut fire breaks in the 
wilderness study area during a fire. Tragically, the benign neglect 
mandated by these requirements has made all wilderness areas firetraps 
just waiting for a lighting flash or a careless match.
  H.R. 2075, authored by Congressman  Greg Walden, with the support of 
the local community, would slightly modify the eastern boundary of the 
Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area, making it 
possible to manage the land properly to reduce fuel loads that threaten 
the neighborhoods in Crooked River Ranch.
  The boundary change will reduce the WSA by about 830 acres, but this 
small change will promote public safety, allow for more efficient fuels 
treatments on the lands immediately adjacent to Crooked River Ranch, 
and give critically important flexibility to local firefighters should 
fire break out in that area.
  This is an issue of public safety, and this bill will clearly help 
protect the lives and property of the thousands of Crooked River Ranch 
residents from wildfire.
  I commend Congressman Walden for his work to provide a commonsense 
solution to a very real public safety concern. I urge adoption of the 
measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the Crooked River Ranch Fire Protection Act removes 830 
acres from the wilderness study area in central Oregon. The land is 
adjacent to a rural subdivision, and its removal from WSA will arguably 
make it easier for the local community and the BLM to plan wildfire 
mitigation projects.
  While we take issue with the point that the WSA designation limits 
mechanical thinning and other necessary forest treatments, the area is 
not suitable for wilderness designation, and the release from the WSA 
makes sense.
  However, we still have concerns with this bill, because it ignores 
the collaborative process that was trying to develop a comprehensive 
plan for the entire area. That plan would have led to lasting 
conservation gains by designating wilderness and would have done even 
more to protect the community from wildfire by creating special 
management areas adjacent to Crooked River Ranch. Unfortunately, the 
collaborative group stalled out after this legislation was introduced.
  Only Congress can permanently change the status of a wilderness study 
area. Whenever we choose to make a permanent change, we have a 
responsibility to consider the whole picture and listen to all 
stakeholders.
  While it is disappointing that we are unable to fulfill that 
commitment with this legislation, we understand the need to prioritize 
safety of the Crooked River Ranch residents.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the author of this legislation 
and the elected representative of this threatened community.
  Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman McClintock and my 
friend from Arizona for their work on this, especially Chairman Bishop 
as well. The Natural Resources Committee has been terrific to work with 
on this measure over a period of time.
  The bill is really an important public safety measure. This is a 
life-and-death measure. There are more than 5,000 people who live in 
Crooked River Ranch. This is an unincorporated community in central 
Oregon. It is wedged between two river systems, river canyons.
  You can see it here on this map. I want to point out the two rivers 
here. It is actually on a peninsula. It sits up. These are deep 
canyons. To the west over here is where the wilderness study area is 
that we are talking about. It is juniper. It is cheatgrass. It is 
sagebrush. These are the most volatile fuels you can have.
  Unlike here on the East Coast, where in the summer you get 
thunderstorms and heavy rain with it, out in Oregon, we have humidity. 
We call it rain that stays in the ground. But in the summer, we don't 
get that. What we get is dry lightning and very little rain. When 
lightning strikes occur in that kind of vegetation, it explodes.

  I have talked to the firefighters, and I will show you what happens 
when this happens. This the terrain. The overstocked juniper, you can 
see it over here. This is very volatile terrain. That is grasslands. As 
I say, there are all kinds of other volatile fuels in there.
  This is at the highest risk category for exposure to catastrophic 
wildfire. The wildfire planning community protection plan calls it that 
in Jefferson County.
  Fire season is already underway in central Oregon. In fact, wildfires 
have already burned 120,000 acres so far this year. It has just gotten 
started. By the way, that is the equivalent of burning about 2\1/2\ 
times the entire size of Washington, D.C.
  So what does that look like? When fire gets into these junipers, they 
basically explode. It is very volatile. Jefferson County Sheriff Jim 
Adkins took this picture out of his rig of the Graham fire. This fire 
nearby--not right at Crooked River Ranch, but in the same county--
burned a few weeks ago. It burned two homes. Altogether, it burned 
about 2,000 acres--2,000 acres--and a couple of homes before they could 
get in and get it out.
  So what we are doing here with this legislation is removing 832 
acres. That is it. Three-thousandths of 1 percent of all the WSAs in 
Oregon, three-thousandths of 1 percent of the acreage, 832 acres, we 
are saying that we are just going to take it back to the rim of the 
canyon, and, on that flat land, you can go in and thin out these 
junipers and get it back to where you can do fire management.

[[Page H6069]]

  Now, when I have talked to the fire chiefs and crews there, they have 
told me: Look, in this community of 5,000, there is one road in and 
out.
  If you have a fire that blows up like this out on the peninsula, out 
on the end, the fire chiefs basically said: If the conditions are wrong 
and there is wind, I am not going to put my firefighters' lives at 
risk, so we will probably not go in and fight that fire. We will just 
try and get people out.
  Can you imagine, on a two-lane road, trying to evacuate more than 
5,000 people with a monster fire breathing down your back? That is what 
we are trying to avoid here.
  This WSA was determined in 1992 by the Bureau of Land Management and 
the Forest Service to not be suitable for inclusion as wilderness. They 
said: No, it doesn't meet the criteria. It should not be included.
  But the way the Federal law works, once the agency decides to study 
one of these areas, all the restrictions come on the land. As you have 
heard from both sides of the aisle--well, at least our side of the 
aisle--that means that you can't go in and do mechanical thinning. You 
can't do the kind of work we need to do.
  By the way, if there is a fire, it takes all kinds of permission to 
drop the retardant or to get in there with mechanical means.
  All we are saying is, let's back that up 832 acres along the rim 
line, send people in, thin this back to where it is in balance and will 
not cause devastating wildfire to consume Crooked River Ranch. Let's 
look at what happens when that does occur.
  You will remember this tragedy from my friend's home State in Santa 
Rosa, California. You don't think fires are monsters and killers and 
deadly? Look at what happened to this community, the homes and lives 
that were lost.
  This is what we are trying to prevent from happening at Crooked River 
Ranch. With bipartisan support, the House is going to show its will 
today, and I think overwhelmingly, to say this is a measured, 
thoughtful piece of legislation with enormous support in the community 
and the county that will prevent a Santa Rosa from occurring at Crooked 
River Ranch.
  Remember, there is one way in and one way out, and 5,500 people who 
live in this area.
  I thank the gentleman from Alaska for his leadership on this. He and 
his staff have been terrific.
  I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I know we have 
some differences about adding other things in. That can be dealt with, 
discussed at another time, but we have a serious and deadly threat 
staring us down every summer. We have fires already burning in the 
area.
  If we want to save lives and prevent deadly fires, this is the bill 
to do it. This is the time to do it. Let's get it done.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the more than 5,000 
residents of the Crooked River Ranch and in the name of common sense, I 
ask for passage of this vital public safety measure, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2075, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to adjust 
the eastern boundary of the Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls and 
Deschutes Canyon Wilderness Study Areas in the State of Oregon to 
facilitate fire prevention and response activities to protect private 
property, and for other purposes.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________