II 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4838
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
SEPTEMBER 29, 2004
Received 
AN ACT 
To establish a Healthy Forest Youth Conservation Corps 
to provide a means by which young adults can carry 
out rehabilitation and enhancement projects to prevent 
fire and suppress fires, rehabilitate public land affected 
or altered by fires, and provide disaster relief, and for 
other purposes.
HR 4838 RDS 
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 ‘‘Healthy Forest Youth 
Conservation Corps Act of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that—
(1) the natural fire regimes of forested public 
land have been altered by intensive fire suppression; 
(2) fire suppression has led to increased risk of 
unnaturally severe wildfires that in recent years have 
destroyed thousands of homes, devastated agricul-
tural crops and livestock, reduced biodiversity, and 
scorched thousands of areas of soil and natural re-
sources; 
(3) catastrophic wildfires pose a particular 
threat to communities and wildlife living close to for-
ested wildland, known as the ‘‘wildland-urban inter-
face’’; 
(4) each year millions of dollars are spent to 
fight severe wildfires and protect communities where 
municipal water supplies, human lives, and property 
are threatened; 
(5) contracts and cooperative agreements be-
tween Federal agencies and State and local govern-
HR 4838 RDS 
ments and other entities empower communities and 
are cost-effective tools that provide positive social 
and environmental benefits, and the use of such con-
tracts and agreements should be encouraged as a 
means to prevent unnaturally severe fires, rehabili-
tate public land affected or altered by fires, and en-
hance and maintain environmentally important land 
and water; and 
(6) joint collaborations between the Federal 
agencies and service and conservation corps com-
posed of young adults are particularly beneficial, as 
the collaborations provide—
(A) young adults the opportunity to pre-
pare for productive lives while engaged in 
meaningful and educational public service op-
portunities; and 
(B) the public with cost-saving human re-
sources to assist in conserving, maintaining, 
and protecting public land. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to allow service and conservation corps to 
enter into agreements with public land management 
agencies to perform rehabilitation and enhancement 
projects to prevent fire, rehabilitate public land af-
HR 4838 RDS 
fected or altered by fires, and suppress fires, and 
provide disaster relief; 
(2) to offer young adults who are members of 
a service and conservation corps, particularly young 
adults who are at-risk or economically disadvan-
taged, a chance to obtain skills and experience in 
forest restoration, so that they are better equipped 
to gain productive employment in the expanding 
workforce being deployed on National Forest System 
lands in fuels reduction, post-fire rehabilitation, and 
other forest health projects, and so that the pool of 
trained workers in forest restoration is expanded to 
satisfy the existing and increasing need for such 
workers; 
(3) to provide those young adults the oppor-
tunity to serve their communities and their country; 
and 
(4) to expand educational opportunities by re-
warding individuals who participate in the Healthy 
Forest Youth Conservation Corps with an increased 
ability to pursue higher education or employment. 
SEC. 4. HEALTHY FOREST YOUTH CONSERVATION CORPS. 
(a) 
ESTABLISHMENT.—There 
is 
established 
a 
Healthy Forest Youth Conservation Corps.