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 subdominant 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 the health of dry forest 
and woodland ecosystems in the interior West; 
(2) to synthesize and adapt scientific findings 
from conventional research programs to implement 
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; 
(B) to ensure that sufficient funds are 
dedicated to wildfire prevention activities, in-
cluding restoration treatments; and 
(C) to monitor wildfire treatments 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 Strat-
egy’’ (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.—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) 
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 return an ecosystem 
or habitat toward—
(A) the original structure of the ecosystem 
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. 
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 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 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—
(A) the State of Arizona, to be located at 
Northern Arizona University; 
(B) the State of New Mexico; 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 management 
framework; 
(3) translate for and transfer to affected enti-
ties any scientific and interdisciplinary knowledge 
about restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction 
treatments; and 
(4) assist affected entities with the design of 
adaptive management approaches (including moni-
toring) for the implementation of restoration-based 
hazardous fuel reduction treatments. 
(d) 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). 
(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) 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, 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 
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 are 
sufficient to achieve the purposes of this Act, includ-
ing—
(A) implementing active management prac-
tices at the landscape level; 
(B) reducing unnecessary planning costs; 
(C) avoiding duplicative and conflicting ef-
forts; 
(D) increasing public acceptance of active 
management practices; and 
(E) achieving general satisfaction on the 
part 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. 
(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.
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