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Union Calendar No. 577

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1288

[Report No. 106–947, Part I]

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 27, 2000

Referred to the Committee on Resources

OCTOBER 6, 2000

Reported and referred to the Committee on Agriculture for a period ending

not later than October 13, 2000, for consideration of such provisions of

the bill as fall within the jurisdiction of that committee pursuant to

clause 1(a), rule X

OCTOBER 13, 2000

Committee on Agriculture discharged; committed to the Committee of the

Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

AN ACT

To provide incentives for collaborative forest restoration

projects on National Forest System and other public

lands in New Mexico, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Forest

3 Restoration Act’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

5 The Congress finds the following:

6 (1) A century of fire suppression, logging, and

7 livestock grazing has altered the ecological balance

8 of New Mexico’s forests.

9 (2) Some forest lands in New Mexico contain

10 an unnaturally high number of small diameter trees

11 that are subject to large, high intensity wildfires

12 that can endanger human lives, livelihoods, and eco13 logical stability.

14 (3) Forest lands that contain an unnaturally

15 high number of small diameter trees have reduced

16 biodiversity and provide fewer benefits to human

17 communities, wildlife, and watersheds.

18 (4) Healthy and productive watersheds mini19 mize the threat of large, high intensity wildfires,

20 provide abundant and diverse wildlife habitat, and

21 produce a variety of timber and non-timber products

22 including better quality water and increased water

23 flows.

24 (5) Restoration efforts are more successful

25 when there is involvement from neighboring commu-
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1 nities and better stewardship will evolve from more

2 diverse involvement.

3 (6) Designing demonstration restoration

4 projects through a collaborative approach may—

5 (A) lead to the development of cost effec6 tive restoration activities;

7 (B) empower diverse organizations to im8 plement activities which value local and tradi9 tional knowledge;

10 (C) build ownership and civic pride; and

11 (D) ensure healthy, diverse, and productive

12 forests and watersheds.

13 SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

14 The purposes of this Act are—

15 (1) to promote healthy watersheds and reduce

16 the threat of large, high intensity wildfires, insect in17 festation, and disease in the forests in New Mexico;

18 (2) to improve the functioning of forest eco19 systems and enhance plant and wildlife biodiversity

20 by reducing the unnaturally high number and den21 sity of small diameter trees on Federal, Tribal,

22 State, County, and Municipal forest lands;

23 (3) to improve communication and joint prob24 lem solving among individuals and groups who are
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1 interested in restoring the diversity and productivity

2 of forested watersheds in New Mexico;

3 (4) to improve the use of, or add value to, small

4 diameter trees;

5 (5) to encourage sustainable communities and

6 sustainable forests through collaborative partner7 ships, whose objectives are forest restoration; and

8 (6) to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate eco9 logically sound forest restoration techniques.

10 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

11 As used in this Act—

12 (1) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary

13 of Agriculture acting through the Chief of the For14 est Service; and

15 (2) the term ‘‘stakeholder’’ includes: tribal gov16 ernments, educational institutions, landowners, and

17 other interested public and private entities.

18 SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.

19 (a) The Secretary shall establish a cooperative forest

20 restoration program in New Mexico in order to provide

21 cost-share grants to stakeholders for experimental forest

22 restoration projects that are designed through a collabo23 rative process (hereinafter referred to as the ‘‘Collabo24 rative Forest Restoration Program’’). The projects may

25 be entirely on, or on any combination of, Federal, Tribal,
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1 State, County, or Municipal forest lands. The Federal

2 share of an individual project cost shall not exceed eighty

3 percent of the total cost. The twenty percent matching

4 may be in the form of cash or in-kind contribution.

5 (b) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.—To be eligible to

6 receive funding under this Act, a project shall—

7 (1) address the following objectives—

8 (A) reduce the threat of large, high inten9 sity wildfires and the negative effects of exces10 sive competition between trees by restoring eco11 system functions, structures, and species com12 position, including the reduction of non-native

13 species populations;

14 (B) re-establish fire regimes approximating

15 those that shaped forest ecosystems prior to fire

16 suppression;

17 (C) preserve old and large trees;

18 (D) replant trees in deforested areas if

19 they exist in the proposed project area; and

20 (E) improve the use of, or add value to,

21 small diameter trees;

22 (2) comply with all Federal and State environ23 mental laws;

24 (3) include a diverse and balanced group of

25 stakeholders as well as appropriate Federal, Tribal,
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1 State, County, and Municipal government represent2 atives in the design, implementation, and monitoring

3 of the project;

4 (4) incorporate current scientific forest restora5 tion information; and

6 (5) include a multi-party assessment to—

7 (A) identify both the existing ecological

8 condition of the proposed project area and the

9 desired future condition; and

10 (B) report, upon project completion, on the

11 positive or negative impact and effectiveness of

12 the project including improvements in local

13 management skills and on the ground results;

14 (6) create local employment or training oppor15 tunities within the context of accomplishing restora16 tion objectives, that are consistent with the purposes

17 of this Act, including summer youth jobs programs

18 such as the Youth Conservation Corps where appro19 priate;

20 (7) not exceed four years in length;

21 (8) not exceed a total annual cost of $150,000,

22 with the Federal portion not exceeding $120,000 an23 nually, nor exceed a total cost of $450,000 for the

24 project, with the Federal portion of the total cost

25 not exceeding $360,000;
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1 (9) leverage Federal funding through in-kind or

2 matching contributions; and

3 (10) include an agreement by each stakeholder

4 to attend an annual workshop with other stake5 holders for the purpose of discussing the cooperative

6 forest restoration program and projects implemented

7 under this Act. The Secretary shall coordinate and

8 fund the annual workshop. Stakeholders may use

9 funding for projects authorized under this Act to

10 pay for their travel and per diem expenses to attend

11 the workshop.

12 SEC. 6. SELECTION PROCESS.

13 (a) After consulting with the technical advisory panel

14 established in subsection (b), the Secretary shall select the

15 proposals that will receive funding through the Collabo16 rative Forest Restoration Program.

17 (b) The Secretary shall convene a technical advisory

18 panel to evaluate the proposals for forest restoration

19 grants and provide recommendations regarding which pro20 posals would best meet the objectives of the Collaborative

21 Forest Restoration Program. The technical advisory panel

22 shall consider eligibility criteria established in section 5,

23 the effect on long term management, and seek to use a

24 consensus-based decision making process to develop such
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1 recommendations. The panel shall be composed of 12 to

2 15 members, to be appointed by the Secretary as follows:

3 (1) A State Natural Resource official from the

4 State of New Mexico.

5 (2) At least two representatives from Federal

6 land management agencies.

7 (3) At least one tribal or pueblo representative.

8 (4) At least two independent scientists with ex9 perience in forest ecosystem restoration.

10 (5) Equal representation from—

11 (A) conservation interests;

12 (B) local communities; and

13 (C) commodity interests.

14 SEC. 7. MONITORING AND EVALUATION.

15 The Secretary shall establish a multi-party moni16 toring and evaluation process in order to assess the cumu17 lative accomplishments or adverse impacts of the Collabo18 rative Forest Restoration Program. The Secretary shall

19 include any interested individual or organization in the

20 monitoring and evaluation process. The Secretary also

21 shall conduct a monitoring program to assess the short

22 and long term ecological effects of the restoration treat23 ments, if any, or a minimum of 15 years.
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1 SEC. 8. REPORT.

2 No later than five years after the first fiscal year in

3 which funding is made available for this program, the Sec4 retary shall submit a report to the Committee on Energy

5 and Natural Resources of the United States Senate and

6 the Committee on Resources of the United States House

7 of Representatives. The report shall include an assessment

8 on whether, and to what extent, the projects funded pursu9 ant to this Act are meeting the purposes of the Collabo10 rative Forest Restoration Program.

11 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

12 There are authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000

13 annually to carry out this Act.
Union Calendar No. 577

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1288

[Report No. 106–947, Part I]

AN ACT

To provide incentives for collaborative forest restoration projects on National Forest System and

other public lands in New Mexico, and for otherpurposes.

OCTOBER 13, 2000

Committee on Agriculture discharged; committed to the

Committee of the Whole House on the State of theUnion and ordered to be printed