I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2551

To amend the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to provide 

owners of non-Federal lands with a reliable method of receiving compensation for damages resulting from the spread of wildfire from nearby 

forested National Forest System lands or Bureau of Land Management 

lands, when those forested Federal lands are not maintained in the 

forest health status known as condition class 1. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 19, 2003

Mr. SIMPSON (for himself and Mr. OTTER) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Resources 

A BILL

To amend the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 

of 1976 to provide owners of non-Federal lands with 

a reliable method of receiving compensation for damages 

resulting from the spread of wildfire from nearby forested National Forest System lands or Bureau of Land 

Management lands, when those forested Federal lands 

are not maintained in the forest health status known 

as condition class 1.

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 ‘‘Enhanced Safety from 

3 Wildfire Act of 2003’’. 

4 SEC. 2. UNITED STATES LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULT5 ING FROM THE SPREAD OF WILDFIRE FROM 

6 FORESTED PUBLIC LANDS. 

7 (a) IMPOSITION OF LIABILITY FOR SPREAD OF

8 WILDFIRE.—Title III of the Federal Land Policy and 

9 Management Act of 1976 is amended by inserting after 

10 section 318 (43 U.S.C. 1748) the following new section: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 319. LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM 

12 SPREAD OF WILDFIRE FROM PUBLIC LANDS 

13 OR NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS. 

14 ‘‘(a) LIABILITY AS RULE OF LAW.—Except as pro15 vided in subsections (b), (c), and (d), and subject to the 

16 delayed effective date specified in subsection (g), any in17 jury to or loss of property that occurs on non-Federal 

18 lands as a direct result of a fire that spread from forested 

19 Federal lands onto the non-Federal lands, either directly 

20 or by first spreading to other non-Federal lands, shall be 

21 deemed to be an injury or loss of property caused by the 

22 negligent or wrongful act or omission of an employee of 

23 the United States while acting within the scope of the em24 ployee’s office or employment for purposes of section 1346 

25 and chapter 171 of title 28, United States Code (com26 monly known as the ‘Federal Tort Claims Act’) . 
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1 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR CERTAIN

2 NON-FEDERAL LANDS.—

3 ‘‘(1) NON-FEDERAL LANDS USED FOR COMMER4 CIAL TIMBER PRODUCTION.—The owner or leasee of 

5 non-Federal lands damaged by the spread of wildfire 

6 from forested Federal lands may not utilize the rule 

7 of law specified in subsection (a) when the non-Fed8 eral lands exceed 640 acres and are used for the 

9 commercial production of timber, unless the owner 

10 or leasee proves that the damaged non-Federal lands 

11 were being managed to achieve or maintain the for12 est health status known as condition class 1 imme13 diately before the fire. 

14 ‘‘(2) ROLE OF STATE FORESTER.—In the event 

15 of a dispute between the owner or leasee and the 

16 Secretary concerned regarding the status before the 

17 fire of non-Federal lands subject to paragraph (1), 

18 the determination of the State Forester of the State 

19 in which the lands are located shall control. Any ex20 penses incurred by the State Forester to make the 

21 determination shall be equally divided between the 

22 Secretary concerned and the owner or leasee. 

23 ‘‘(c) EXCLUSION OF CONDITION CLASS 1 LANDS.—

24 The rule of law specified in subsection (a) shall not apply 

25 if the forested Federal lands within the buffer zone adja-
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1 cent to the Federal land boundary from which the fire 

2 spread to non-Federal lands were managed as condition 

3 class 1 immediately before the fire. 

4 ‘‘(d) EXCLUSION OF OTHER FEDERAL LANDS.—The 

5 rule of law specified in subsection (a) shall not apply to 

6 the following Federal lands, even though wildfire may 

7 originate on such lands and spread to adjacent non-Fed8 eral lands: 

9 ‘‘(1) A component of the National Wilderness 

10 Preservation System. 

11 ‘‘(2) Federal lands where, by Act of Congress, 

12 Presidential proclamation, or land and resource 

13 management plan, the removal of vegetation is pro14 hibited. 

15 ‘‘(3) Areas of Federal lands that comprise less 

16 than 6,400 acres and are not contiguous to other 

17 Federal lands. 

18 ‘‘(e) REPORT REGARDING STATUS OF BUFFER

19 LANDS.—Not later than two years after the date of the 

20 enactment of this section, the Secretary concerned shall 

21 submit to Congress a report describing the forest health 

22 status of all buffer zones with non-Federal lands and the 

23 extent to which the buffer zones are in, or are being man24 aged to achieve, the forest health status known as condi25 tion class 1. 
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1 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

2 ‘‘(1) The term ‘buffer zone’ refers to those for3 ested Federal lands that are within a prescribed dis4 tance of a Federal land boundary with non-Federal 

5 lands and comprise, or are part of a larger area of 

6 Federal lands comprising, 6,400 acres or more. The 

7 Secretary shall prescribe the actual buffer zone for 

8 a particular area of forested Federal lands based on 

9 the geography, topography, and forest cover of the 

10 lands. 

11 ‘‘(2) The term ‘condition class 1’, with respect 

12 to an area of forested Federal lands or non-Federal 

13 lands, means that the lands are managed so that—

14 ‘‘(A) fire regimes on the lands are within 

15 historical ranges; 

16 ‘‘(B) vegetation composition and structure 

17 are intact; and 

18 ‘‘(C) the risk of losing key ecosystem com19 ponents from the occurrence of fire remains rel20 atively low. 

21 ‘‘(3) The term ‘forested Federal lands’ means 

22 public lands and National Forest System lands that 

23 contain trees as a significant component of the 

24 lands. 
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1 ‘‘(4) The term ‘Secretary concerned’ means the 

2 Secretary of the Interior (or the designee of that 

3 Secretary) with respect to public lands and the Sec4 retary of Agriculture (or the designee of that Sec5 retary) with respect to National Forest System 

6 lands. 

7 ‘‘(g) DELAYED EFFECTIVE DATE.—The rule of law 

8 specified in subsection (a) shall take effect at the end of 

9 the eight-year period beginning on the date of the enact10 ment of this section and apply with respect to fires that 

11 spread from Federal lands onto non-Federal lands after 

12 the end of such period.’’. 

13 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

14 at the beginning of the Federal Land Policy and Manage15 ment Act of 1976 is amended by inserting after the item 

16 relating to section 318 the following new item:

‘‘Sec. 319. Liability for damages resulting from spread of wildfire from public 

lands or National Forest System lands.’’.

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