A bill that aims to improve federal forest health passed the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday.
Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash, helped to advance the bipartisan Resilient Federal Forests Act, which improves wildfire prevention and funding and focuses on reforestation and habitat, according to a press release. Herrera Beutler said in the release that while the bill doesn’t address all of the issues forests in Western Washington face, the bill is a good start to improve the forests. She plans to work on her own legislation to protect regional federal forests.
“Over the last 20 years, our federal forests have lacked effective management, which has left the susceptible to overgrowth, disease and catastrophic wildfires,” Herrera Beutler said.
According to the release, in eight of the last 10 years the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have used all funds allocated to fight wildfires, so money for management projects has been diverted to firefighting. The bill lets the Federal Emergency Management Agency send funds to the Forest Service when wildfire money runs out.
To help protect communities, watersheds and wildlife from the threat of wildfires, the bill allows for categorical exclusions for forest thinning projects, and the permit process for post-fire timber salvaging and reforesting is expedited by the bill.
The bill outlines management practices to protect habitat for plants and animals, including mice, elk, deer and birds including the spotted owl.
Similar to timber sales, counties can receive 25 percent of revenues from stewardship contracting through the bill to improve public safety and services.
Herrera Beutler helped to specify in the bill that states cannot hold counties’ timber payments to fund unrelated state initiatives, and the bill extends Secure Rural Schools authorization through 2020.
