Fix Our Forests Act already heading to House Floor

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and catastrophic due to improper land management and climate change. Congressman Peters’ bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act will restore and expedite scientific, tribal backed forest management projects while upholding environmental standards.

Read more about it in this June 27th piece from the Porterville Recorder, posted below:

Fix Our Forests Act already heading to House Floor

By The Recorder

June 27, 2024

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources passed a bipartisan wildfire prevention bill by voice vote.

The Fix Our Forests Act presented by Democratic Congressman Scott Peters of California and committee chairman, Republican Bruce Westerman of Arkansas passed through the committee, clearing the way for it to head to the House floor.

The bill aims to restore forest health, reduce catastrophic wildfires that contribute to pollution and climate change, and increase community resilience to fire threats. It’s now eligible for consideration by the whole House.

“So far in 2024, 20,176 wildfires have burned 2,223,801 acres across the United States,” said Peters said. “Climate change, prolonged drought, and over a century of poor land management have led us to this catastrophic point. Thankfully, today the House Natural Resources Committee took the first step in confronting this problem by passing Chair Westerman’s and my Fix Our Forests Act. There is still a long road ahead for this legislation, but I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides to get this bill passed by the House.”

Cosponsors of the bill include Representatives Tony Cardenas (D-CA-29), John Curtis (R-UT-3), Ami Bera (D-CA-6), Pete Stauber (R-MN-8), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19), Tom McClintock (R-CA-5), Jim Costa (D-CA-21), Tom Tiffany (R-WI-7), John Duarte (R-CA-13), and James Moylan (R-GU).

The Fix Our Forests Act is supported by the National Congress of American Indians, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Bipartisan Policy Center, the National Association of Counties, the Property and Environment Research Center, American Forests, the Evangelical Environmental Network, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Sempra, Edison Electric Institute, Pacific Gas & Electric, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, MegaFire Action, the American Conservation Coalition Action, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the American Forest Resource Council, the American Loggers Council, the Arkansas Forestry Association, Associated California Loggers, the Boone and Crockett Club, the Dallas Safari Club, the Forest Landowners Association, the Forest Resources Association, the Hardwood Federation, Potlach Deltic, and Rayonier.

Peters and Chair Westerman are also co-authors of the Save our Sequoias Act, designed to give land managers more flexibility when it comes to managing forests in the effort to mitigate wildfires and save Giant Sequoias.

The Fix Our Forests Act also encourages active forest management and supports community resiliency for wildfires by speeding up environmental analyses, reducing and increasing the pace and size of forest restoration projects. Peters added the bill would reduce frivolous lawsuits as well.

The bill will:

Simplify and speed up environmental reviews for forest management projects in the areas at the highest risk for wildfires and promote federal, state, tribal and local collaboration on wildfire mitigation while encouraging engagement with landowners and communities.

The bill also encourages controlled burning that’s backed by the best available science while acknowledging Tribal sovereignty, which allows for cultural burning. The first cultural burning project in about a century was done last last year in the Sequoia National Forest.

Peters also said the bill would assist communities with innovative technologies and modernized standards. And the bill would curtail litigation in an effort to make sure forest management projects are not delayed.

The bill creates a framework for interagency collaboration to advance wildfire and land management research and development and to provide financial assistance to communities and support tribe efforts.

In addition the bill creates a federal-state-tribal framework to prioritize projects in forests at the ighest risk of catastrophic wildfire.

Peters added the bill encourages state-of-the-art, science-based approaches for federal land managers, including methods to capture CO2.

The bill also strengthens the Good Neighbor policy to include tribes. Good Neighbor policies allow different agencies who are close to each other to work together when it comes to forest management.

While the bill has bipartisan support and support of environmental groups, it also has its opposition who claims the bill undermines environmental rules. Earthjustice refers to the bill as an anti-forestry bill. More than 85 environmental and eight civil justice organizations have issued letters in opposition to the bill.

Those against the bill also say it undermines forest management practices grounded in science.