108TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 2696
AN ACT
To establish Institutes to demonstrate and promote the use
of adaptive ecosystem management to reduce the risk
of wildfires, and restore the health of fire-adapted forest
and woodland ecosystems of the interior West.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Southwest Forest
Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that—
(1) there is an increasing threat of wildfire to
millions of acres of forest land and rangeland
throughout the United States;
(2) forest land and rangeland are degraded as
a direct consequence of land management practices,
including practices to control and prevent wildfires
and the failure to harvest subdominant trees from
overstocked stands that disrupt the occurrence of
frequent low-intensity fires that have periodically re-
moved flammable undergrowth;
(3) at least 39,000,000 acres of land of the Na-
tional Forest System in the interior West are at
high risk of wildfire;
(4) an average of 95 percent of the expendi-
tures by the Forest Service for wildfire suppression
during fiscal years 1990 through 1994 were made to
suppress wildfires in the interior West;
(5) the number, size, and severity of wildfires in
the interior West are increasing;
(6) of the timberland in National Forests in the
States of Arizona and New Mexico, 59 percent of
such land in Arizona, and 56 percent of such land
in New Mexico, has an average diameter of 9 to 12
inches diameter at breast height;
(7) the population of the interior West grew
twice as fast as the national average during the
1990s;
(8) catastrophic wildfires—
(A) endanger homes and communities;
(B) damage and destroy watersheds and
soils; and
(C) pose a serious threat to the habitat of
threatened and endangered species;
(9) a 1994 assessment of forest health in the
interior West estimated that only a 15- to 30-year
window of opportunity exists for effective manage-
ment intervention before damage from uncontrollable
wildfire becomes widespread, with 8 years having al-
ready elapsed since the assessment;
(10) healthy forest and woodland ecosystems—
(A) reduce the risk of wildfire to forests
and communities;
(B) improve wildlife habitat and biodiver-
sity;
(C) increase tree, grass, forb, and shrub
productivity;
(D) enhance watershed values;
(E) improve the environment; and
(F) provide a basis in some areas for eco-
nomically and environmentally sustainable uses;
(11) sustaining the long-term ecological and
economic health of interior West forests and wood-
land, and their associated human communities re-
quires preventing severe wildfires before the wildfires
occur and permitting natural, low-intensity ground
fires;
(12) more natural fire regimes cannot be ac-
complished without the reduction of excess fuels and
thinning of subdominant trees (which fuels and trees
may be of commercial value);
(13) ecologically based forest and woodland eco-
system restoration on a landscape scale will—
(A) improve long-term community protec-
tion;
(B) minimize the need for wildfire suppres-
sion;
(C) improve resource values;
(D) improve the ecological integrity and re-
silience of these systems;
(E) reduce rehabilitation costs;
(F) reduce loss of critical habitat; and
(G) protect forests for future generations;
(14) although landscape scale restoration is
needed to effectively reverse degradation, scientific
understanding of landscape scale treatments is lim-
ited;
(15) rigorous, objective, understandable, and
applied scientific information is needed for—
(A) the design, implementation, moni-
toring, and adaptation of landscape scale res-
toration treatments and improvement of wildfire
management;
(B) the environmental review process; and
(C) affected entities that collaborate in the
development and implementation of wildfire
treatment.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to enhance the capacity to develop, transfer,
apply, monitor, and regularly update practical
science-based forest restoration treatments that will
reduce the risk of severe wildfires, and improve the
health of dry forest and woodland ecosystems in the
interior West;
(2) to synthesize and adapt scientific findings
from conventional research programs to the imple-
mentation of forest and woodland restoration on a
landscape scale;
(3) to facilitate the transfer of interdisciplinary
knowledge required to understand the socioeconomic
and environmental impacts of wildfire on ecosystems
and landscapes;
(4) to require the Institutes established under
this Act to collaborate with Federal agencies—
(A) to use ecological restoration treatments
to reverse declining forest health and reduce the
risk of severe wildfires across the forest land-
scape; and
(B) to design, implement, monitor, and
regularly revise representative wildfire treat-
ments based on the use of adaptive ecosystem
management;
(5) to assist land managers in—
(A) treating acres with restoration-based
applications; and
(B) using new management technologies
(including the transfer of understandable infor-
mation, assistance with environmental review,
and field and classroom training and collabora-
tion) to accomplish the goals identified in—
(i) the National Fire Plan;
(ii) the report entitled ‘‘Protecting
People and Sustaining Resources in Fire-
Adapted Ecosystems-A Cohesive Strategy’’
(65 Fed. Reg. 67480); and
(iii) the report entitled ‘‘10-Year
Comprehensive Strategy: A Collaborative
Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire
Risks to Communities and the Environ-
ment’’ of the Western Governors’ Associa-
tion;
(6) to provide technical assistance to collabo-
rative efforts by affected entities to develop, imple-
ment, and monitor adaptive ecosystem management
restoration treatments that are ecologically sound,
economically viable, and socially responsible; and
(7) to assist Federal and non-Federal land
managers in providing information to the public on
the role of fire and fire management in dry forest
and woodland ecosystems in the interior West.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) ADAPTIVE ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT.—
(A) DEFINITION.—The term ‘‘adaptive
ecosystem management’’ means a natural re-
source management process under which plan-
ning, implementation, monitoring, research,
evaluation, and incorporation of new knowledge
are combined into a management approach
that—
(i) is based on scientific findings and
the needs of society;
(ii) treats management actions as ex-
periments;
(iii) acknowledges the complexity of
these systems and scientific uncertainty;
and
(iv) uses the resulting new knowledge
to modify future management methods and
policy.
(B) 
CLARIFICATION.—This 
paragraph
shall not define the term ‘‘adaptive ecosystem
management’’ for the purposes of the Forest
and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning
Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.).
(2) AFFECTED ENTITIES.—The term ‘‘affected
entities’’ includes—
(A) land managers;
(B) stakeholders;
(C) concerned citizens; and
(D) the States of the interior West, includ-
ing political subdivisions of the States.
(3) 
DRY
FOREST
AND
WOODLAND
ECO-
SYSTEM.—The term ‘‘dry forest and woodland eco-
system’’ means an ecosystem that is dominated by
ponderosa pines and associated dry forest and wood-
land types.
(4) INSTITUTE.—The term ‘‘Institute’’ means
an Institute established under section 5(a).
(5) INTERIOR
WEST.—The term ‘‘interior
West’’ means the States of Arizona, Colorado,
Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
(6) LAND MANAGER.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘land man-
ager’’ means a person or entity that practices
or guides natural resource management.
(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘land man-
ager’’ includes a Federal, State, local, or tribal
land management agency.
(7) RESTORATION.—The term ‘‘restoration’’
means a process undertaken to move an ecosystem
or habitat toward—
(A) a sustainable structure of the eco-
system or habitat; or
(B) a condition that supports a natural
complement of species, natural function, or eco-
logical process (such as a low-intensity fire).
(8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the
Chief of the Forest Service.
(9) SECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’
means—
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting
through the Chief of the Forest Service; and
(B) the Secretary of the Interior.
(10) STAKEHOLDER.—The term ‘‘stakeholder’’
means any person interested in or affected by man-
agement of forest or woodland ecosystems.
(11) SUBDOMINANT
TREES.—Are trees that
occur underneath the canopy or extend into the can-
opy but are smaller and less vigorous than dominant
trees.
(12) OVERSTOCKED STANDS.—Where the num-
ber of trees per acre exceeds the natural carrying ca-
pacity of the site.
(13) RESILIENCE.—The ability of a system to
absorb disturbance without being pushed into a dif-
ferent, possibly less desirable stable state.
SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF INSTITUTES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consultation
with the Secretary of the Interior, shall—
(1) not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, establish Institutes to pro-
mote the use of adaptive ecosystem management to
reduce the risk of wildfires, and restore the health
of forest and woodland ecosystems, in the interior
West; and
(2) provide assistance to the Institutes to pro-
mote the use of collaborative processes and adaptive
ecosystem management in accordance with para-
graph (1).
(b) LOCATION.—
(1) EXISTING INSTITUTES.—The Secretary may
designate an institute in existence on the date of en-
actment of this Act to serve as an Institute estab-
lished under this Act.
(2) STATES.—Of the Institutes established
under this Act, the Secretary shall establish 1 Insti-
tute in each of—
(A) the State of Arizona, to be located at
Northern Arizona University;
(B) the State of New Mexico, to be located
at New Mexico Highlands University, while en-
gaging the full resources of the consortium of
universities represented in the Institute of Nat-
ural 
Resource 
Analysis 
and 
Management
(INRAM); and
(C) the State of Colorado.
(c) DUTIES.—Each Institute shall—
(1) develop, conduct research on, transfer, pro-
mote, and monitor restoration-based hazardous fuel
reduction treatments to reduce the risk of severe
wildfires and improve the health of dry forest and
woodland ecosystems in the interior West;
(2) synthesize and adapt scientific findings
from conventional research to implement restoration-
based hazardous fuel reduction treatments on a
landscape scale using an adaptive ecosystem man-
agement framework;
(3) translate for and transfer to affected enti-
ties any scientific and interdisciplinary knowledge
about restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction
treatments;
(4) assist affected entities with the design of
adaptive management approaches (including moni-
toring) for the implementation of restoration-based
hazardous fuel reduction treatments; and
(5) provide peer-reviewed annual reports.
(d) QUALIFICATIONS.—Each Institute shall—
(1) develop and demonstrate capabilities in the
natural, physical, social, and policy sciences; and
(2) explicitly integrate those disciplines in the
performance of the duties listed in subsection (c).
(e) COOPERATION.—Each Institute may cooperate
with—
(1) researchers and cooperative extension pro-
grams at colleges, community colleges, and univer-
sities in the States of Arizona, New Mexico, and Col-
orado that have a demonstrated capability to con-
duct research described in subsection (c); and
(2) other organizations and entities in the inte-
rior West (such as the Western Governors’ Associa-
tion).
(f) ANNUAL WORK PLANS.—As a condition of the re-
ceipt of funds made available under this Act, for each fis-
cal year, each Institute shall develop in consultation with
the Secretary, for review by the Secretary, in consultation
with the Secretary of the Interior, an annual work plan
that includes assurances, satisfactory to the Secretaries,
that the proposed work of the Institute will serve the infor-
mational needs of affected entities.
(g) ESTABLISHMENT OF ADDITIONAL INSTITUTES.—
If after 2 years after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the Secretary finds that the Institute model estab-
lished at the locations named in subsection (b)(2) would
be constructive for other interior West States, the Sec-
retary may establish 1 institute in each of those States.
SEC. 6. COOPERATION BETWEEN INSTITUTES AND FED-
ERAL AGENCIES.
In carrying out this Act, the Secretary, in consulta-
tion with the Secretary of the Interior—
(1) to the extent that funds are appropriated
for the purpose, shall provide financial and technical
assistance to the Institutes to carry out the duties
of the Institutes under section 5;
(2) shall encourage Federal agencies to use, on
a cooperative basis, information and expertise pro-
vided by the Institutes;
(3) shall encourage cooperation and coordina-
tion between Federal programs relating to—
(A) ecological restoration;
(B) wildfire risk reduction; and
(C) wildfire management technologies;
(4) notwithstanding chapter 63 of title 31,
United States Code, may—
(A) enter into contracts, cooperative agree-
ments, and interagency personal agreements to
carry out this Act; and
(B) carry out other transactions under this
Act;
(5) may accept funds from other Federal agen-
cies to supplement or fully fund grants made, and
contracts entered into, by the Secretaries;
(6) may support a program of internships for
qualified individuals at the undergraduate and grad-
uate levels to carry out the educational and training
objectives of this Act;
(7) shall encourage professional education and
public information activities relating to the purposes
of this Act; and
(8) may promulgate such regulations as the
Secretaries determine are necessary to carry out this
Act.
SEC. 7. MONITORING AND EVALUATION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 5 years after the
date of enactment of this Act, and every 5 years there-
after, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of
the Interior, shall complete and submit to the Committee
on Resources and the Committee on Agriculture of the
House of Representatives and to the Committee on En-
ergy and Natural Resources of the Senate a detailed eval-
uation of the programs and activities of each Institute—
(1) to ensure, to the maximum extent prac-
ticable, that the research, communication tools, and
information transfer activities of each Institute are
sufficient to achieve the purposes of this Act,
including—
(A) implementing active adaptive eco-
system management practices at the landscape
level;
(B) reducing unnecessary planning costs;
(C) avoiding duplicative and conflicting ef-
forts;
(D) increasing public acceptance of active
adaptive ecosystem management practices; and
(E) achieving general satisfaction on the
part of affected entities;
(2) to determine the extent to which each Insti-
tute has implemented its duties under section 5(c);
and
(3) to determine whether continued provision of
Federal assistance to each Institute is warranted.
(b) TERMINATION OF ASSISTANCE.—If, as a result
of an evaluation under subsection (a), the Secretary, in
consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, determines
that an Institute does not qualify for further Federal as-
sistance under this Act, the Institute shall receive no fur-
ther Federal assistance under this Act until such time as
the qualifications of the Institute are reestablished to the
satisfaction of the Secretaries.
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro-
priated to carry out this Act $15,000,000 for each fiscal
year.
(b) LIMITATION.—No funds made available under
subsection (a) shall be used to pay the costs of con-
structing any facilities.
Passed the House of Representatives February 24,
2004.
Attest:
Clerk.