Remarks of

The Honorable

Rebecca W. Watson

Assistant Secretary \-- Land and Minerals Management

**"Federal Agencies as Willing Partners: What We Bring to the Table** "

**Team Tamarisk: Cooperating for Results**

Albuquerque, NM

April 1, 2004

**Introduction**

Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here today with so many individuals
who are concerned about the environmental and economic effects of
tamarisk, and who share a commitment to work together to control this
invasive species.

The Department cares about the spread of tamarisk because of the plant's
notorious ability to steal our precious water; diminish the productivity
of our lands; decrease the biological diversity of the plants and
wildlife on our lands; and enable the spread of wildfire through
important riparian areas.

**Citizen Stewardship**

The Department of the Interior is excited about this conference and the
enthusiastic response from all of you. So many of you responded that we
ran out of room. "Team Tamarisk" is a great opportunity to put into
practice some of our shared ideals.

The President has said that every American has the opportunity to be a
steward of public lands. At the Bureau of Land Management and other
Interior bureaus we are making citizen stewardship a reality through the
Secretary's Four Cs: communication, consultation, and cooperation in the
name of conservation. We are working with you in partnerships to make a
difference across Interior's landscape.

The old-style, traditional "command and control", top-down methods of
Federal government management are clearly not appropriate to control
tamarisk, which has spread like a biological wildfire throughout
watersheds and river basins without regard to jurisdictional boundaries.

Meaningful results at controlling tamarisk will only be achieved through
the efforts of all land managers, landowners and citizen stewards
working together with a shared goal of making a difference on the
ground, where it counts.

President Bush, Secretary Norton and I foresee a 21^st^ century of
citizen stewards -- Americans who move beyond formal legalistic
processes to be fully engaged in the stewardship of the land and
resources where they live.

This Administration has put in place an important tool for citizen
stewards. The Council on Environmental Quality has directed that
counties and communities are now equal partners as cooperating agencies
in the NEPA process on land management plans.

And, at Interior, we have revised our NEPA implementing guidance to
increase opportunities for public involvement early in the NEPA process
and to emphasize the development of diverse partnerships.

No longer are communities left to passively comment on federal land use
or activity plan environmental impact statements (EIS), but can now sit
at the table with federal agencies as a cooperating agency. This is a
BIG CHANGE -- please take advantage of it.

Now, I want to highlight four ways, in addition to Federal dollars, that
Federal agencies working with state, local and tribal partners can
contribute to the control of tamarisk:

-   Water 2025;

-   The National Fire Plan;

-   The President's Healthy Forests Initiative; and,

-   Biomass Utilization.

**Water 2025**

Secretary Norton has said that an Administration program, *Water 2025:
Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West*, "can foster practical,
community-based solutions to the water supply crisis facing many western
states". A case in point is when the city council of Albuquerque voted
last year to loan local farmers, suffering under drought, a portion of
the city's water supply.

Water 2025 encourages innovative solutions to water management issues at
all levels. Removal of water thirsty invasive species can be an action
under Water 2025. I encourage you to explore how the management of
tamarisk might be part of a water management solution, and then to work
together to implement that solution.

**National Fire Plan**

The National Fire Plan is a focused cooperative effort among Federal
agencies, states, Tribes, and the Western Governors Association to
address the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

The National Fire Plan provides another avenue for a wide spectrum of
landowners to join together to address tamarisk control. Near Moab,
Utah, a tamarisk removal project of the National Fire Plan protected a
popular campground from wildfire.

Projects to reduce hazardous fuels, such as tamarisk, are prioritized
and coordinated amongst Federal, state, Tribal, and local entities
through collaboration under the 10-Year Implementation Plan of the
National Fire Plan. The collaborative process was developed with the
Western Governors' Association and it starts at the local level. Make
sure that your tamarisk control project gets considered in the annual
prioritized list of hazardous fuel projects: project lists are submitted
by May 1^st^.

In addition to funding fuel treatment projects on the Federal lands, the
National Fire Plan also includes funding for community assistance grants
to mitigate risks of hazardous fuels, and grants for the development of
community protection plans.

Development of community wildfire protection plans gives you greater
flexibility, under the newly enacted Healthy Forest Restoration Act, for
fuels treatment. So encourage your community to develop a plan.

**Healthy Forests Initiative**

The Healthy Forests Initiative is the Administration's set of
administrative and legislative actions to more efficiently and
effectively implement the hazardous fuel treatments under the National
Fire Plan and to restore the health of our forests and rangelands.

The President's Healthy Forests Initiative provides a suite of tools
that will be useful to help control tamarisk and restore riparian
ecosystems. Here are a couple of examples of how these tools can be used
to control tamarisk.

The HFI includes direction to the Fish and Wildlife Serviced to
implement the Endangered Species Act more effectively. If a species
listed under ESA occurred in an area with tamarisk, the short-term
effects on the species of removing tamarisk could be weighed against the
long-term benefits of reestablishing native riparian species such as
cottonwoods. This change will help projects get implemented and will
benefit wildlife.

With stewardship contracting authority, the Forest Service and the BLM
can develop contracts for the removal of low value vegetation, like
tamarisk or pinyon-juniper, and allows the contractor to retain that
biomass in exchange for the service removing the biomass. This is often
called "a goods for service contract."

Rather than paying the contractor to simply pile and burn the biomass,
the contractor would be encouraged to find a commercial use for the
material -- whether that is a new market for a new product, or using the
biomass for energy production.

Federal land managers could provide some of the feedstock for a power
plant while also reducing the hazardous-fuels load in the lands
surrounding a community, and restoring forest, rangeland, or riparian
habitat.

Another HFI "tool" is a simplified process for completing environmental
assessments under the NEPA. The Council on Environmental Quality
provided direction that allows the agencies to produce shorter and more
readable environmental assessments instead of multi-volume technical
reports that could span hundreds of pages or more.

One of the first projects to use this new authority was an environmental
assessment for tamarisk control in southern Nevada on the Virgin River.

Why should you care about a better process? Simplified EAs allow more
projects to be done more quickly for fewer dollars.

**Biomass Utilization**

The President's *National Energy Plan* has described goals for
increasing domestic energy production from both fossil fuels and
renewable resources. Affordable, available energy is part of the
President's 6-part economic plan. One of the goals of the National
Energy Plan is increased energy production from renewables like biomass.

Interior can contribute to the Nation's energy supply by developing a
reliable supply of biomass materials such as tamarisk and other woody
species in the arid West. If we can provide a renewable supply, the
private sector can invest in biomass plants with the confidence that
Federal lands can supply the fuel.

At the federal level, agencies involved in the research, funding and
policy decisions necessary to promote biomass utilization are working
together. In June 2003, the Secretaries of the Interior, Energy and
Agriculture signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging to work
together and with their non-federal partners to encourage the
utilization of biomass.

In January 2004, a national biomass energy and small wood utilization
conference was held in Denver to identify opportunities and obstacles to
the utilization of biomass energy. New Mexicans were among the most
visible and enthusiastic participants.

At the field level, the Department of the Interior and the Forest
Service are working with local communities to find ways to provide
biomass from Federal lands in support of the economies of rural
communities. There are a variety of projects on the drawing boards.

For example, the BLM Yuma Field Office has a pilot project to use
tamarisk biomass from a hazardous fuels reduction project for energy.

The mechanical clearing of salt cedar is estimated to produce about 400
tons of usable biomass, which is chipped and transported by a contractor
to a commercial, wood-fueled, biomass power plant near Mecca,
California.

The development of a sustainable bioenergy and wood products industry
would support Interior's stewardship mission to restore our Nation's
forests, woodlands, and rangelands and to protect our communities and
natural resources from catastrophic wildfire. And it would help
diversify our supply of energy. A win, win, win proposition!

The control and use of tamarisk can:

-   Help manage water and restore riparian plant and wildlife habitat;

-   Reduce an accumulation of volatile fuel threatening natural
    resources and communities;

-   Help develop a sustainable bioenergy and wood products industry and
    contribute to the Nation's domestic energy resources; and,

-   Provide socio-economic benefits to the rural communities whose
    economies are so tied to Federal lands and Federal land management.

**Conclusion**

Success in controlling the spread and reducing the extent of tamarisk
will depend upon the synergy of communities, researchers, landowners,
private sector, conservationists, water managers, Tribes, Federal and
state agencies.

Solutions will be organized at the local or watershed level, using
frameworks developed at the regional or river basin level. Solutions
will be implemented by all levels of government working together with
citizen-stewards.

The control of the tamarisk infesting our waterways and floodplains can
only be successful if we work together at the community and watershed
level. Together, we can help realize a shared vision of healthy lands,
dynamic economies and thriving communities.

Thank you.