III

107TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 352

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 23, 2002

Received and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and

Forestry

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress that Federal land management agencies should fully support the ‘‘Collaborative

10-year Strategy for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to

Communities and the Environment’’ as prepared by the

Western Governors’ Association, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and other stakeholders, to reduce the overabundance of forest fuels that

place national resources at high risk of catastrophic wildfire, and prepare a national assessment of prescribed

burning practices to minimize risks of escape.

Whereas catastrophic wildfires not only cause environmental

damage to forests and other lands but place the lives of

firefighters at risk and pose threats to human health,

personal property, sustainable ecosystems, wildlife habitat, and air and water quality;
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Whereas upon completion of the 2001 wildfire season, 81,681

fires burned 3,555,138 acres, which threatened rural

communities nationwide and killed 18 firefighters;

Whereas 8,422,237 acres burned during the 2000 wildfire

season—equivalent to a 6-mile-wide area from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, California—destroying 861

structures, killing 17 firefighters, and costing the Federal

Government $1,300,000,000 in suppression costs;

Whereas upon completion of the 1999 wildfire season, 93,702

fires burned 5,661,976 acres nationwide and killed 28

firefighters;

Whereas an April 1999 General Accounting Office report to

the House of Representatives entitled ‘‘Western National

Forests: A Cohesive Strategy is Needed to Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats’’ (GAO/RCED–99–65) states

that ‘‘The most extensive and serious problem related to

the health of national forests in the interior West is the

overaccumulation of vegetation, which has caused an increasing number of large, intense, uncontrollable and

catastrophically destructive wildfires’’;

Whereas an October 2000 Forest Service report entitled

‘‘Protecting People and Sustaining Resources in FireAdapted Ecosystems: A Cohesive Strategy’’, in response

to the 1999 General Accounting Office report, confirms

the previous report’s conclusion and further warns that

‘‘Without increased restoration treatments . . . , wildfire

suppression costs, natural resource losses, private property losses, and environmental damage are certain to escalate as fuels continue to accumulate and more acres become high-risk’’;
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Whereas the July 2001 General Accounting Office testimony

entitled ‘‘The National Fire Plan: Federal Agencies Are

Not Organized to Effectively and Efficiently Implement

the Plan’’ (GAO–01–1022T) before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health

reported that ‘‘The Federal Government’s decades-old

policy of suppressing all wildland fires, including naturally occurring ones, have resulted in dangerous accumulations of hazardous fuels on Federal lands. As a result,

conditions on 211,000,000 acres, or almost one-third of

all Federal lands, continue to deteriorate’’ and ‘‘[t]he list

of at-risk communities ballooned to over 22,000’’;

Whereas the escaped prescribed burn that created the Cerro

Grande Fire in May 2000, that consumed 48,000 acres

and destroyed 400 homes with losses exceeding

$1,000,000,000 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the escaped prescribed burn that created the Lowden Fire in

1999 that destroyed 23 homes in Lewiston, California,

highlight the unacceptable risks of over reliance on prescribed burning by Federal land management agencies;

Whereas similar catastrophic wildfire resolutions were passed

by the California Legislature (AJR 69) and Western

Legislative Forestry Task Force (R00–1) in 2000 and

Oregon (HJM 22), Idaho (SJM 104), Montana (HJ 22)

in 2001, and South Dakota (HCR 1018) in 2002; and

Whereas in 2000, Congress provided an unprecedented

$2,900,000,000 in funding for wildlife firefighting agencies of the United States Department of Agriculture and

the Department of the Interior to prepare for future firesuppression efforts and take proactive steps to reduce

wildfire risk on all Federal lands: Now, therefore, be it
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1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that—

3 (1) in the interest of protecting the integrity

4 and posterity of United States forests and wildlands,

5 wildlife habitats, watersheds, air quality, human

6 health and safety, and private property, the Forest

7 Service and other Federal land management agen8 cies should—

9 (A) fully support the ‘‘Collaborative 10-

10 year Strategy for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks

11 to Communities and the Environment’’ as pre12 pared by the Western Governors’ Association,

13 the Department of Agriculture, the Department

14 of the Interior, and other stakeholders, to re15 duce the overabundance of forest fuels that

16 place these resources at high risk of cata17 strophic wildfire;

18 (B) use an appropriate mix of fire preven19 tion activities and management practices, in20 cluding forest restoration, thinning of at-risk

21 forest stands, grazing, selective tree removal,

22 and other measures to control insects and

23 pathogens, removal of excessive ground fuels,

24 and prescribed burns;
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1 (C) increase the role for private, local, and

2 State contracts for fuel reduction treatments on

3 Federal forest lands and adjoining private prop4 erties; and

5 (D) pursue more effective fire suppression

6 on Federal forest lands through increased fund7 ing of mutual aid agreements with professional

8 State and local public fire fighting agencies;

9 (2) in the interest of forest protection and pub10 lic safety, the United States Department of Agri11 culture and the Department of the Interior should

12 immediately prepare for public review a national as13 sessment of prescribed burning practices on public

14 lands to identify alternatives that will achieve land

15 management objectives to minimize risks associated

16 with prescribed fire; and

17 (3) results from the national assessment of pre18 scribed burning practices on public lands as de19 scribed in paragraph (2) should be incorporated into

20 any regulatory land use planning programs that pro
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1 pose the use of prescribed fire as a management practice.

Passed the House of Representatives July 22, 2002.

Attest: JEFF TRANDAHL,

Clerk.