I
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5086
To establish Institutes to conduct research on the prevention of, and restora-
tion from, wildfires in forest and woodland ecosystems of the interior
West.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 10, 2002
Mr. HAYWORTH (for himself, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, Mr. MCINNIS, Mr.
STUMP, Mr. SCHAFFER, Mr. KOLBE, Mr. TANCREDO, and Mrs. WILSON
of New Mexico) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agri-
culture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To establish Institutes to conduct research on the prevention
of, and restoration from, wildfires in 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 ‘‘Wildfire Prevention
Act of 2002’’.
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) efforts to prioritize forests and communities
for wildfire risk reduction have been inconsistent
and insufficient and have resulted in funding to
areas that are not prone to severe wildfires;
(9) 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;
(10) 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;
(11) following a catastrophic wildfire, certain
forests in the interior West do not return to their
former grandeur;
(12) 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;
(13) sustaining the long-term ecological and
economic health of interior West forests and wood-
land, and their dependent human communities, re-
quires preventing severe wildfires before the wildfires
occur and permitting natural, low-intensity ground
fires;
(14) more natural fire regimes cannot be ac-
complished without the reduction of excess fuels and
thinning of subdorminant trees (which fuels and
trees may be of commercial value);
(15) 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) reduce rehabilitation costs;
(E) reduce loss of critical habitat; and
(F) protect forests for future generations;
(16) although the National Fire Plan, and the
report entitled ‘‘Protecting People and Sustaining
Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosystems—A Cohesive
Strategy’’ (65 Fed. Reg. 67480), advocate a shift in
wildfire policy from suppression to prevention (in-
cluding restoration and hazardous fuels reduction),
Federal land managers are not dedicating sufficient
attention and financial resources to restoration ac-
tivities that simultaneously restore forest health and
reduce the risk of severe wildfire;
(17) although landscape scale restoration is
needed to effectively reverse degradation, scientific
understanding of landscape scale treatments is lim-
ited;
(18) the Federal wildfire research program is
funded at approximately 1⁄3 of the amount that is re-
quired to address emerging wildfire problems, result-
ing in the lack of a cohesive strategy to address the
threat of catastrophic wildfires; and
(19) rigorous, understandable, and applied sci-
entific information is needed for—
(A) the design, implementation, and adap-
tation of landscape scale restoration treatments
and improvement of wildfire management tech-
nology;
(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, and monitor practical science-based forest res-
toration treatments that will reduce the risk of se-
vere wildfires, and improve forest and woodland
health, in the interior West;
(2) to develop the practical scientific knowledge
required to implement forest and woodland restora-
tion on a landscape scale;
(3) to develop the interdisciplinary knowledge
required to understand the socioeconomic and envi-
ronmental impacts of wildfire control on ecosystems
and landscapes;
(4) to require 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;
(B) to ensure that sufficient funds are
dedicated to wildfire prevention activities, in-
cluding restoration treatments; and
(C) to monitor and use wildfire treatments
based on the use of adaptive ecosystem manage-
ment;
(5) to develop, transfer, and assist land man-
agers in treating acres with restoration-based treat-
ments and use new management technologies (in-
cluding the transfer of understandable information,
assistance with environmental review, and field and
classroom training and collaboration) to accomplish
the goals identified in—
(A) the National Fire Plan;
(B) the report entitled ‘‘Protecting People
and Sustaining Resources in Fire-Adapted Eco-
systems—A Cohesive Strategy’’ (65 Fed. Reg.
67480); and
(C) the report entitled ‘‘10-Year Com-
prehensive Strategy: A Collaborative Approach
for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Commu-
nities and the Environment’’ of the Western
Governors’ Association; and
(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.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) ADAPTIVE ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT.—The
term ‘‘adaptive ecosystem management’’ means a
natural resource management process under which
planning, implementation, monitoring, research,
evaluation, and incorporation of new knowledge are
combined into a management approach that is—
(A) based on scientific findings and the
needs of society; and
(B) used to modify future management
methods and policy.
(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) INSTITUTE.—The term ‘‘Institute’’ means
an Institute established under section 5(a).
(4) INTERIOR
WEST.—The term ‘‘interior
West’’ means the States of Arizona, Colorado,
Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
(5) 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.
(6) RESTORATION.—The term ‘‘restoration’’
means a process undertaken to return an ecosystem
or habitat toward—
(A) the original condition of the ecosystem
or habitat; or
(B) a condition that supports a related
species, natural function, or ecological process
(including a low intensity fire).
(7) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the
Chief of the Forest Service.
(8) 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.
(9) STAKEHOLDER.—The term ‘‘stakeholder’’
means any person interested in or affected by man-
agement of forest or woodland ecosystems.
(10) STATES.—The term ‘‘States’’ means—
(A) the State of Arizona;
(B) the State of New Mexico; and
(C) the State of Colorado.
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 3 Institutes to pro-
mote the use of adaptive ecosystem management to
reduce the risk of wildfires, and improve the health
of forest and woodland ecosystems, in the interior
West; and
(2) provide assistance to the Institutes to pro-
mote the use of adaptive ecosystem management in
accordance with paragraph (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 the States of Arizona, New Mexico,
and Colorado.
(c) DUTIES.—Each Institute shall—
(1) plan, conduct, or promote research on the
use of adaptive ecosystem management to reduce the
risk of wildfires, and improve the health of forest
and woodland ecosystems, in the interior West,
including—
(A) research that assists in providing in-
formation on the use of adaptive ecosystem
management practices to affected entities; and
(B) research that will be useful in the de-
velopment and implementation of practical,
science-based, ecological restoration treatments
for forest and woodland ecosystems affected by
wildfires; and
(2) provide the results of research described in
paragraph (1) to affected entities.
(d) COOPERATION.—To increase and accelerate ef-
forts to restore forest ecosystem health and abate unnatu-
ral and unwanted wildfires in the interior West, each In-
stitute shall cooperate with—
(1) researchers at colleges and universities in
the States that have a demonstrated capability to
conduct research described in subsection (c); and
(2) other organizations and entities in the inte-
rior West (such as the Western Governors’ Associa-
tion).
(e) ANNUAL WORK PLANS.—As a condition of the
receipt of funds made available under this Act, for each
fiscal year, each Institute shall submit to the Secretary,
for review by the Secretary, in consultation with the Sec-
retary of the Interior, an annual work plan that includes
assurances, satisfactory to the Secretaries, that the pro-
posed work of the Institute will serve the informational
needs of affected entities.
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) shall ensure that adequate financial and
technical assistance is provided to the Institutes to
enable the Institutes to carry out the purposes of the
Institutes under section 5, including prevention ac-
tivities and ecological restoration for wildfires and
affected ecosystems;
(2) shall use information and expertise provided
by the Institutes;
(3) shall encourage Federal agencies to use, on
a cooperative basis, information and expertise pro-
vided by the Institutes;
(4) shall encourage cooperation and coordina-
tion between Federal programs relating to—
(A) ecological restoration;
(B) wildfire risk reduction; and
(C) wildfire management technologies;
(5) notwithstanding chapter 63 of title 31,
United States Code, may—
(A) enter into contracts, cooperative agree-
ments, interagency personal agreements to
carry out this Act; and
(B) carry out other transactions under this
Act;
(6) may accept funds from other Federal agen-
cies to supplement or fully fund grants made, and
contracts entered into, by the Secretaries;
(7) 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;
(8) shall encourage professional education and
public information activities relating to the purposes
of this Act; and
(9) 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
Interior, shall complete and submit to the appropriate
committees of Congress a detailed evaluation of the pro-
grams 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 meet
the needs of affected entities; and
(2) 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.
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out
this Act $15,000,000 for each fiscal year.
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