I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1861
To amend the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act
of 1974, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the
National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966, the Na-
tional Indian Forest Resources Management Act, and title 10, United
States Code, to strengthen the protection of native biodiversity and
to place restraints upon clearcutting and certain other cutting practices
on the forests of the United States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 11, 1997
Mr. HINCHEY (for himself and Mr. SHAYS) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the
Committees on Resources, and National Security, for a period to be sub-
sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources
Planning Act of 1974, the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act of 1976, the National Wildlife Refuge
System Administration Act of 1966, the National Indian
Forest Resources Management Act, and title 10, United
States Code, to strengthen the protection of native bio-
diversity and to place restraints upon clearcutting and
certain other cutting practices on the forests of the
United States.
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 ‘‘Forest Biodiversity
Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. PURPOSES, FINDINGS, CONFLICT WITH ENDAN-
GERED SPECIES ACT.
(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are, on all
Federal public lands, to conserve native biodiversity and
to protect all native ecosystems against losses that result
from clearcutting and other forms of evenage logging.
(b) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Federal agencies of the United States that
engage in evenage logging practices include the For-
est Service of the Department of Agriculture, the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of
Land Management, and Bureau of Indian Affairs of
the Department of the Interior, and the Army,
Navy, and Air Force of the Department of Defense.
(2) Evenage logging causes substantial alter-
ations in native biodiversity by emphasizing the pro-
duction of a limited number of commercial species of
trees on each site, generally only one; by manipulat-
ing the vegetation toward greater relative density of
such commercial species, by suppressing competing
species, and by planting, on numerous sites, a com-
mercial strain that was developed to reduce the rel-
ative diversity of genetic strains that previously oc-
curred within the species on the same sites.
(3) Evenage logging kills immobile species and
the very young of mobile species of wildlife and de-
pletes the habitat of deep-forest species of animals,
including endangered species.
(4) Evenage logging exposes the soil to direct
sunlight, impact of rains, disruption of surface, and
compaction of organic layers, and disrupts the run-
off restraining capabilities of roots and low-lying
vegetation, resulting in soil erosion, leaching out of
nutrients, reduction in biological content of the soil,
and impoverishment of the soil, with long-range dele-
terious effect on all land resources, even timber
production.
(5) Evenage logging decreases the capability of
the soil to retain carbon and, during the critical pe-
riods of felling and site preparation, reduces the ca-
pacity of the biomass to process and to store carbon,
with a result of loss of such carbon to the atmos-
phere, thereby aggravating global warming.
(6) Evenage logging renders the soil increas-
ingly sensitive to acid deposition by causing decline
of soil wood and coarse woody debris, reducing site
capacity for retention of water and nutrients, in-
creasing soil heat, and impairing the maintenance of
protective carbon compounds on the soil surface.
(7) Evenage logging results in increased stream
sedimentation, siltation of stream bottoms, decline in
water quality, impairment of life cycles and spawn-
ing processes of aquatic life from benthic organisms
to large fish, thereby depleting the sports and com-
mercial fisheries of the United States.
(8) Evenage logging increases harmful edge ef-
fects, including blowdowns, invasions by weed spe-
cies, and heavier losses to predators and competi-
tors, from raccoons and hawks to ratsnakes and
cowbirds.
(9) Evenage logging decreases recreational val-
ues, reducing deep, canopied, variegated, permanent
forests, where the public can fulfill an expanding
need for recreation. Evenage logging replaces such
forests with a surplus of clearings that grow into rel-
atively impenetrable thickets of saplings, and then
into monotonous plantations.
(10) Human beings depend on native biological
resources, including plants, animals, and micro-orga-
nisms, for food, medicine, shelter, and other impor-
tant products, and as a source of intellectual and
scientific 
knowledge, 
recreation, 
and 
aesthetic
pleasure.
(11) Alteration of native biodiversity has seri-
ous consequences for human welfare as America
irretrievably loses resources for research and agricul-
tural, medicinal, and industrial development.
(12) Alteration of biological diversity in Federal
forests adversely affects the functions of ecosystems
and critical ecosystem processes that moderate cli-
mate, govern nutrient cycles and soil conservation
and production, control pests and diseases, and
degrade wastes and pollutants.
(13) The harm of evenage logging to the natu-
ral resources of this Nation and the quality of life
of its people are substantial, severe, and avoidable.
(14) By substituting selection management, as
prescribed in this Act, for the evenage system, the
Federal agencies now engaged in evenage logging
would substantially reduce devastation to the envi-
ronment and would improve the quality of life of the
American people.
(15) By protecting native biodiversity, as pre-
scribed in this Act, Federal agencies would maintain
vital native ecosystems and would improve the qual-
ity of life of the American people.
(16) Selection logging is more job intensive,
therefore providing more employment than evenage
cutting for managing the same amount of timber
production, and produces higher quality sawlogs.
(17) The court remedies now available for citi-
zens to utilize in the enforcement of Federal forest
laws are inadequate, and should be strengthened by
providing for actions by citizens for injunctions, de-
claratory judgments, civil penalties, and reasonable
costs of suit.
(c) CONFLICT WITH ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF
1973.—In the event of any conflict between a provision
of this Act, or an amendment made by this Act, and the
Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531), the
latter shall prevail.
SEC. 3. AMENDMENT OF RANGELAND AND RENEWABLE RE-
SOURCES PLANNING ACT OF 1974 RELATING
TO NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS.
(a) CONSERVATION OF NATIVE BIODIVERSITY.—Sec-
tion 6(g)(3)(B) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable
Resources 
Planning 
Act 
of 
1974 
(16 
U.S.C.
1604(g)(3)(B)) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(B) regardless of any other provision in
this Act, in each stand and each watershed
throughout each forested area, the Secretary
shall provide for the conservation or restoration
of native biodiversity except during the extrac-
tion stage of authorized mineral development or
during authorized construction projects, in
which events the Secretary shall conserve native
biodiversity to the extent possible;’’.
(b) COMMITTEE OF SCIENTISTS.—Section 6(h)(1) of
the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning
Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604(h)(1)) is amended to read
as follows:
‘‘(h) COMMITTEE OF SCIENTISTS.—(1) In carrying
out the purposes of subsection (g) of this section, the Sec-
retary shall appoint a committee of scientists who are not
officers or employees of the Forest Service nor of any
other public entity, nor of any entity engaged in whole
or in part in the production of wood or wood products,
and have not contracted with or represented any of such
entities within a period of 5 years prior to serving on such
committee. The committee shall provide scientific and
technical advice and counsel on proposed guidelines and
procedures and all other issues involving forestry and bio-
diversity to assure that an effective interdisciplinary ap-
proach is proposed and adopted. The committee shall ter-
minate after the expiration of 10 years from the date of
enactment of this paragraph.’’.
(c) RESTRICTION
ON USE
OF CERTAIN LOGGING
PRACTICES.—Section 6 of the Forest and Rangeland Re-
newable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C.
1604) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(n) RESTRICTION ON USE OF CERTAIN LOGGING
PRACTICES.—(1) In each stand and watershed throughout
each forested area, the Secretary shall prohibit any
evenage logging and any evenage management after the
date of enactment of this subsection.
‘‘(2) On each site already under evenage manage-
ment, the Secretary shall (A) prescribe a shift to selection
management within one year, or (B) cease managing for
timber purposes and actively restore the native biodiver-
sity, or permit each site to regain its native biodiversity.
‘‘(3) For the purposes of this Act:
‘‘(A) The term ‘native biodiversity’ means the
full range of variety and variability within and
among living organisms and the ecological complexes
in which they would have occurred in the absence of
significant human impact, and encompasses diversity
within a species (genetic diversity), among species
(species diversity), within a community of species
(within-community diversity), between communities
of species (between-communities diversity), within a
total area such as a watershed (total area diversity),
along a plane from ground to sky (vertical diversity),
and along the plane of the earth-surface (horizontal
diversity). Vertical and horizontal diversity apply to
all the other aspects of diversity.
‘‘(B) The terms ‘conserve’ and ‘conservation’
refer to protective measures for maintaining existing
native biological diversity and active and passive
measures for restoring diversity through manage-
ment efforts, in order to protect, restore, and en-
hance as much of the variety of species and commu-
nities as possible in abundances and distributions
that provide for their continued existence and nor-
mal functioning, including the viability of popu-
lations throughout their natural geographic distribu-
tions.
‘‘(C) The term ‘within-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of species and ec-
ological processes that occur in different physical
settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of the
world.
‘‘(D) The term ‘genetic diversity’ means the dif-
ferences in genetic composition within and among
populations of a given species.
‘‘(E) The term ‘between-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of communities
and ecological processes that occur in different phys-
ical settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of
the world.
‘‘(F) The term ‘species diversity’ means the
richness and variety of native species in a particular
location of the world.
‘‘(G) The term ‘group selection’ means a form
of selection management that emphasizes the peri-
odic removal of trees, including mature, undesirable,
and cull trees in small groups, where they occur that
way, with a result of (i) creating openings not to ex-
ceed in width in any direction the height of the tall-
est tree standing within 10 feet outside the edge of
the group cut, and (ii) maintaining different age
groups in a given stand. In no event will more than
30 percent of the basal area of a stand be felled
within 40 years. The foregoing limitation shall not
be deemed to establish a 100-year projected felling
age as the standard at which individual trees in a
stand are to be cut, nor shall native biodiversity be
limited to that which occurs within the context of a
100-year projected felling age.
‘‘(H) The term ‘stand’ means a biological com-
munity with enough identity by location, topography,
or dominant species to be managed as a unit, not to
exceed 100 acres.
‘‘(I) The term ‘clearcutting’ means the logging
of more than one-half of the commercial trees in a
patch larger than a group defined in subparagraph
(G) or in a stand of any size in a short period of
time.
‘‘(J) The term ‘evenage management’ means
the growing of timber so that all trees in a patch or
stand are generally within 10 years of the same age.
Except for designated leave trees, or clumps of trees
comprising less than two-thirds of the patch or
stand, the patch or stand is logged, completely in
any acre within a period of 30 years, by clearcutting,
salvage logging, seed-tree cutting or shelterwood cut-
ting, two-age management or high grading, or any
system other than selection management.
‘‘(K) The term ‘salvage logging’ means the fell-
ing or further damaging, within any 30-year period,
of more than one-half the volume per acre of dead,
damaged, or other trees, or any combination of such
trees.
‘‘(L) The term ‘seed-tree cut’ means an evenage
logging operation that leaves a small minority of
seed trees in a stand for any period of time.
‘‘(M) The term ‘selection management’ means
the application of logging and other actions needed
to maintain continuous high forest cover where such
cover naturally occurs, recurring natural regenera-
tion of all native species on the site, and the orderly
growth and development of trees through a range of
diameter or age classes to provide a sustained yield
of forest products. Cutting methods that develop and
maintain selection stands are individual-tree and
group selection. An essential element of selection is
improvement of quality by continuously felling trees
less likely to contribute to the long-range health of
the stand.
‘‘(N) The term ‘shelterwood cut’ means an
evenaged logging operation that leaves a minority
(larger than in a seed-tree cut) of the stand as a
seed source or protection cover remaining standing
for any period of time.
‘‘(O) The term ‘timber purposes’ shall include
the use, sale, lease, or distribution of trees, or the
felling of trees or portions of trees except to create
land space for a structure or other use.
‘‘(4)(A)(i) The purpose of this paragraph is to foster
the widest possible enforcement of this section.
‘‘(ii) Congress finds that all people of the United
States are injured by actions on lands to which this section
applies.
‘‘(B) The provisions of this section shall be enforced
by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Attorney General
of the United States against any person who violates ei-
ther of them.
‘‘(C)(i) Any citizen harmed by a violation of this Act
may enforce any provision of this section by bringing an
action for declaratory judgment, temporary restraining
order, injunction, civil penalty, and other remedies against
any alleged violator including the United States, in any
district court of the United States.
‘‘(ii) The court, after determining a violation of either
of such subsections, shall impose a penalty of not less than
$5,000 and not more than $50,000 per violation, shall
issue one or more injunctions and other equitable relief
and shall award to the plaintiffs reasonable costs of litiga-
tion including attorney’s fees, witness fees and other nec-
essary expenses.
‘‘(iii) The standard of proof in all actions brought
under this subparagraph shall be the preponderance of the
evidence and the trial shall be de novo.
‘‘(D) The penalty authorized by subparagraph (C)(ii)
shall be paid by the violator or violators designated by the
court. If that violator is the United States of America or
a Federal agency or officer, the penalty shall be paid to
the Judgment Fund, as provided by Congress under sec-
tion 1304 of title 31, United States Code.
‘‘(E) The penalty shall be paid from the Judgment
Fund within 40 days after judgment to the person or per-
sons designated to receive it, to be applied in protecting
or restoring native biodiversity in or adjoining Federal
land. Any award of costs of litigation and any award of
attorney fees shall be paid within 40 days after judgment.
‘‘(F) The United States, including its agents and em-
ployees waives its sovereign immunity in all respects in
all actions under this section. No notice is required to en-
force this subsection.
‘‘(5) No roads shall be constructed or reconstructed
in any roadless area, as defined in the second United
States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Roadless
Area Review and Evaluation (RARE II, 1978) or in a land
and resource management plan prepared pursuant to this
section.’’.
(d) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—(1) 
Section
6(g)(3)(F) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re-
source Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604(g)(3)(F))
is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(F) ensure that the Secretary shall, with-
out use of evenage management practices, re-
store the native biodiversity of manipulated
evenage stands within a reasonable period of
time.’’.
(2) Section 6 of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable
Resource Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604) is fur-
ther amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section:
‘‘(o) RESTORATION OF BIODIVERSITY OF EVENAGE
STANDS.—The Secretary shall carry out all management
practices on the ground in such a way as to protect, inso-
far as possible, soil, watersheds, fish, wildlife, recreation,
native biodiversity, and esthetic resources, and the trees
that are not cut.’’.
SEC. 4. AMENDMENT OF FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND MAN-
AGEMENT ACT OF 1976 RELATING TO THE
PUBLIC LANDS.
(a) CONSERVATION OF NATIVE BIODIVERSITY.—Sec-
tion 202(c) of the Federal Land Policy and Management
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712(c)) is amended—
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (8) and (9) as
paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (7) the follow-
ing new paragraph (8):
‘‘(8) regardless of any other provision in this
Act, in each stand and each watershed throughout
each forested area, the Secretary shall provide for
the conservation or restoration of native biodiversity
except during the extraction stage of authorized
mineral development or during authorized construc-
tion projects, in which events the Secretary shall
conserve native biodiversity to the extent possible;’’.
(b) RESTRICTION ON USE OF CERTAIN LOGGING
PRACTICES.—Section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712) is amended
by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(g) RESTRICTION ON USE OF CERTAIN LOGGING
PRACTICES.—(1) In each stand and watershed throughout
each forested area, the Secretary shall prohibit any
evenage logging and any evenage management after the
date of enactment of this subsection.
‘‘(2) On each site already under evenage manage-
ment, the Secretary shall (A) prescribe a shift to selection
management within one year, or (B) cease managing for
timber purposes and actively restore the native biodiver-
sity, or permit each site to regain its native biodiversity.
‘‘(3) For the purposes of this Act:
‘‘(A) The term ‘native biodiversity’ means the
full range of variety and variability within and
among living organisms and the ecological complexes
in which they would have occurred in the absence of
significant human impact, and encompasses diversity
within a species (genetic diversity), among species
(species diversity), within a community of species
(within-community diversity), between communities
of species (between-communities diversity), within a
total area such as a watershed (total area diversity),
along a plane from ground to sky (vertical diversity),
and along the plane of the earth-surface (horizontal
diversity). Vertical and horizontal diversity apply to
all the other aspects of diversity.
‘‘(B) The terms ‘conserve’ and ‘conservation’
refer to protective measures for maintaining existing
native biological diversity and active and passive
measures for restoring diversity through manage-
ment efforts, in order to protect, restore, and en-
hance as much of the variety of species and commu-
nities as possible in abundances and distributions
that provide for their continued existence and nor-
mal functioning, including the viability of popu-
lations throughout their natural geographic distribu-
tions.
‘‘(C) The term ‘within-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of species and ec-
ological processes that occur in different physical
settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of the
world.
‘‘(D) The term ‘genetic diversity’ means the dif-
ferences in genetic composition within and among
populations of a given species.
‘‘(E) The term ‘between-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of communities
and ecological processes that occur in different phys-
ical settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of
the world.
‘‘(F) The term ‘species diversity’ means the
richness and variety of native species in a particular
location of the world.
‘‘(G) The term ‘group selection’ means a form
of selection management that emphasizes the peri-
odic removal of trees, including mature, undesirable,
and cull trees in small groups, where they occur that
way, with a result of (i) creating openings not to ex-
ceed in width in any direction the height of the tall-
est tree standing within 10 feet outside the edge of
the group cut, and (ii) maintaining different age
groups in a given stand. In no event will more than
30 percent of the basal area of a stand be felled
within 40 years. The foregoing limitation shall not
be deemed to establish a 100-year projected felling
age as the standard at which individual trees in a
stand are to be cut, nor shall native biodiversity be
limited to that which occurs within the context of a
100-year projected felling age.
‘‘(H) The term ‘stand’ means a biological com-
munity with enough identity by location, topography,
or dominant species to be managed as a unit, not to
exceed 100 acres.
‘‘(I) The term ‘clearcutting’ means the logging
of more than one-half of the commercial trees in a
patch larger than a group defined in subparagraph
(G) or in a stand of any size in a short period of
time.
‘‘(J) The term ‘evenage management’ means
the growing of timber so that all trees in a patch or
stand are generally within 10 years of the same age.
Except for designated leave trees, or clumps of trees
comprising less than two-thirds of the patch or
stand, the patch or stand is logged, completely in
any acre within a period of 30 years, by clearcutting,
salvage logging, seed-tree cutting or shelterwood cut-
ting, two-age management or high grading, or any
system other than selection management.
‘‘(K) The term ‘salvage logging’ means the fell-
ing or further damaging, within any 30-year period,
of more than one-half the volume per acre of dead,
damaged, or other trees, or any combination of such
trees.
‘‘(L) The term ‘seed-tree cut’ means an evenage
logging operation that leaves a small minority of
seed trees in a stand for any period of time.
‘‘(M) The term ‘selection management’ means
the application of logging and other actions needed
to maintain continuous high forest cover where such
cover naturally occurs, recurring natural regenera-
tion of all native species on the site, and the orderly
growth and development of trees through a range of
diameter or age classes to provide a sustained yield
of forest products. Cutting methods that develop and
maintain selection stands are individual-tree and
group selection. An essential element of selection is
improvement of quality by continuously felling trees
less likely to contribute to the long-range health of
the stand.
‘‘(N) The term ‘shelterwood cut’ means an
evenaged logging operation that leaves a minority
(larger than in a seed-tree cut) of the stand as a
seed source or protection cover remaining standing
for any period of time.
‘‘(O) The term ‘timber purposes’ shall include
the use, sale, lease, or distribution of trees, or the
felling of trees or portions of trees except to create
land space for a structure or other use.
‘‘(4)(A)(i) The purpose of this paragraph is to foster
the widest possible enforcement of subsection (c)(8) and
this subsection.
‘‘(ii) Congress finds that all people of the United
States are injured by actions on lands to which subsection
(c)(8) and this subsection apply.
‘‘(B) The provisions of subsection (c)(8) and this sub-
section shall be enforced by the Secretary of the Interior
and the Attorney General of the United States against any
person who violates either of them.
‘‘(C)(i) Any citizen harmed by a violation of this Act
may enforce any provision of subsection (c)(8) and this
subsection by bringing an action for declaratory judgment,
temporary restraining order, injunction, civil penalty, and
other remedies against any alleged violator including the
United States, in any district court of the United States.
‘‘(ii) The court, after determining a violation of either
of such subsections, shall impose a penalty of not less than
$5,000 and not more than $50,000 per violation, shall
issue one or more injunctions and other equitable relief
and shall award to the plaintiffs reasonable costs of litiga-
tion including attorney’s fees, witness fees and other
necessary expenses.
‘‘(iii) The standard of proof in all actions brought
under this subparagraph shall be the preponderance of the
evidence and the trial shall be de novo.
‘‘(D) The penalty authorized by subparagraph (C)(ii)
shall be paid by the violator or violators designated by the
court. If that violator is the United States of America or
a Federal agency or officer, the penalty shall be paid to
the Judgment Fund, as provided by Congress under
section 1304 of title 31, United States Code.
‘‘(E) The penalty shall be paid from the Judgment
Fund within 40 days after judgment to the person or per-
sons designated to receive it, to be applied in protecting
or restoring native biodiversity in or adjoining Federal
land. Any award of costs of litigation and any award of
attorney fees shall be paid within 40 days after judgment.
‘‘(F) The United States, including its agents and em-
ployees waives its sovereign immunity in all respects in
all actions under subsection (c)(8) and this subsection. No
notice is required to enforce this subsection.
‘‘(5) No roads shall be constructed or reconstructed
in any Bureau of Land Management roadless areas
inventoried pursuant to this Act.’’.
(c) REPEAL.—Subsection (b) of section 701 of the
Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43
U.S.C. 1701 note) is hereby repealed.
SEC. 5. AMENDMENT OF NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE SYS-
TEM ADMINISTRATION ACT OF 1966 RELAT-
ING TO THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
SYSTEM.
Section 4 of the National Wildlife Refuge System Ad-
ministration Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 668dd) is amended
by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(j) CONSERVATION OF NATIVE BIODIVERSITY.—Re-
gardless of any other provision in this Act, in each stand
and each watershed throughout each forested area within
the System, the Secretary shall provide for the conserva-
tion or restoration of native biodiversity, except during the
extraction stage of authorized mineral development or dur-
ing authorized construction projects, in which events the
Secretary shall conserve native biodiversity to the extent
possible.
‘‘(k) RESTRICTION ON USE OF CERTAIN LOGGING
PRACTICES.—(1) In each stand and watershed throughout
each forested area, the Secretary shall prohibit any
evenage logging and any evenage management after the
date of enactment of this subsection.
‘‘(2) On each site already under evenage manage-
ment, the Secretary shall (A) prescribe a shift to selection
management within one year, or (B) cease managing for
timber purposes and actively restore the native biodiver-
sity, or permit each site to regain its native biodiversity.
‘‘(3) For the purposes of this subsection:
‘‘(A) The term ‘native biodiversity’ means the
full range of variety and variability within and
among living organisms and the ecological complexes
in which they would have occurred in the absence of
significant human impact, and encompasses diversity
within a species (genetic diversity), among species
(species diversity), within a community of species
(within-community diversity), between communities
of species (between-communities diversity), within a
total area such as a watershed (total area diversity),
along a plane from ground to sky (vertical diversity),
and along the plane of the earth-surface (horizontal
diversity). Vertical and horizontal diversity apply to
all the other aspects of diversity.
‘‘(B) The terms ‘conserve’ and ‘conservation’
refer to protective measures for maintaining existing
native biological diversity and active and passive
measures for restoring diversity through manage-
ment efforts, in order to protect, restore, and en-
hance as much of the variety of species and commu-
nities as possible in abundances and distributions
that provide for their continued existence and nor-
mal functioning, including the viability of popu-
lations throughout their natural geographic distribu-
tions.
‘‘(C) The term ‘within-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of species and ec-
ological processes that occur in different physical
settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of the
world.
‘‘(D) The term ‘genetic diversity’ means the dif-
ferences in genetic composition within and among
populations of a given species.
‘‘(E) The term ‘between-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of communities
and ecological processes that occur in different phys-
ical settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of
the world.
‘‘(F) The term ‘species diversity’ means the
richness and variety of native species in a particular
location of the world.
‘‘(G) The term ‘group selection’ means a form
of selection management that emphasizes the peri-
odic removal of trees, including mature, undesirable,
and cull trees in small groups, where they occur that
way, with a result of (i) creating openings not to ex-
ceed in width in any direction the height of the tall-
est tree standing within 10 feet outside the edge of
the group cut, and (ii) maintaining different age
groups in a given stand. In no event will more than
30 percent of the basal area of a stand be felled
within 40 years. The foregoing limitation shall not
be deemed to establish a 100-year projected felling
age as the standard at which individual trees in a
stand are to be cut, nor shall native biodiversity be
limited to that which occurs within the context of a
100-year projected felling age.
‘‘(H) The term ‘stand’ means a biological com-
munity with enough identity by location, topography,
or dominant species to be managed as a unit, not to
exceed 100 acres.
‘‘(I) The term ‘clearcutting’ means the logging
of more than one-half of the commercial trees in a
patch larger than a group defined in subparagraph
(G) or in a stand of any size in a short period of
time.
‘‘(J) The term ‘evenage management’ means
the growing of timber so that all trees in a patch or
stand are generally within 10 years of the same age.
Except for designated leave trees, or clumps of trees
comprising less than two-thirds of the patch or
stand, the patch or stand is logged, completely in
any acre within a period of 30 years, by clearcutting,
salvage logging, seed-tree cutting or shelterwood cut-
ting, two-age management or high grading, or any
system other than selection management.
‘‘(K) The term ‘salvage logging’ means the fell-
ing or further damaging, within a 30-year period, of
more than one-half the volume per acre of dead,
damaged, or other trees, or any combination of such
trees.
‘‘(L) The term ‘seed-tree cut’ means an evenage
logging operation that leaves a small minority of
seed trees in a stand for any period of time.
‘‘(M) The term ‘selection management’ means
the application of logging and other actions needed
to maintain continuous high forest cover where such
cover naturally occurs, recurring natural regenera-
tion of all native species on the site, and the orderly
growth and development of trees through a range of
diameter or age classes to provide a sustained yield
of forest products. Cutting methods that develop and
maintain selection stands are individual-tree and
group selection. An essential element of selection is
improvement of quality by continuously felling trees
less likely to contribute to the long-range health of
the stand.
‘‘(N) The term ‘shelterwood cut’ means an
evenaged logging operation that leaves a minority
(larger than in a seed-tree cut) of the stand as a
seed source or protection cover remaining standing
for any period of time.
‘‘(O) The term ‘timber purposes’ shall include
the use, sale, lease, or distribution of trees, or the
felling of trees or portions of trees except to create
land space for a structure or other use.
‘‘(4)(A)(i) The purpose of this paragraph is to foster
the widest possible enforcement of subsection (j) and this
subsection.
‘‘(ii) Congress finds that all people of the United
States are injured by actions on lands to which subsection
(j) and this subsection apply.
‘‘(B) The provisions of subsection (j) and this sub-
section shall be enforced by the Secretary of the Interior
and the Attorney General of the United States against any
person who violates either of them.
‘‘(C)(i) Any citizen harmed by a violation of this Act
may enforce any provision of this subsection by bringing
an action for declaratory judgment, temporary restraining
order, injunction, civil penalty, and other remedies against
any alleged violator including the United States, in any
district court of the United States.
‘‘(ii) The court, after determining a violation of either
of such subsections, shall impose a penalty of not less than
$5,000 and not more than $50,000 per violation, shall
issue one or more injunctions and other equitable relief
and shall award to the plaintiffs reasonable costs of litiga-
tion including attorney’s fees, witness fees and other nec-
essary expenses.
‘‘(iii) The standard of proof in all actions brought
under this subparagraph shall be the preponderance of the
evidence and the trial shall be de novo.
‘‘(D) The penalty authorized by subparagraph (C)(ii)
shall be paid by the violator or violators designed by the
court. If that violator is the United States of America or
a Federal agency or officer, the penalty shall be paid to
the Judgment Fund, as provided by Congress under sec-
tion 1304 of title 31, United States Code.
‘‘(E) The penalty should be paid from the Judgment
Fund within 40 days after judgment to the person or per-
sons designated to receive it, to be applied in protecting
or restoring native biodiversity in or adjoining Federal
land. Any award of costs of litigation and any award of
attorney fees shall be paid within 40 days after judgment.
‘‘(F) The United States, including its agents and em-
ployees waives its sovereign immunity in all respects in
all actions under subsection (j) and this subsection. No
notice is required to enforce this subsection.’’.
SEC. 6. AMENDMENT OF NATIONAL INDIAN FOREST RE-
SOURCES MANAGEMENT ACT RELATING TO
INDIAN LANDS.
Section 305 of the National Indian Forest Resources
Management Act (25 U.S.C. 4535) is amended by adding
at the end the following new subsections:
‘‘(c) CONSERVATION
OF NATIVE BIODIVERSITY.—
Regardless of any other provision in this Act, in each
stand and each watershed throughout each stand that is
managed or operated for timber purposes in each forested
area on Indian lands except during the extraction stage
of authorized mineral development or during authorized
construction projects in which events the Secretary shall
conserve native biodiversity to the extent possible.
‘‘(d) RESTRICTION ON USE OF CERTAIN LOGGING
PRACTICES.—(1) In each stand and watershed throughout
each forested area, the Secretary shall prohibit any
evenage logging and any evenage management after the
date of enactment of this subsection.
‘‘(2) On each site already under evenage manage-
ment, the Secretary shall (A) prescribe a shift to selection
management within one year, or (B) cease managing for
timber purposes and actively restore the native biodiver-
sity, or permit each site to regain its native biodiversity.
‘‘(3) For the purposes of this section:
‘‘(A) The term ‘native biodiversity’ means the
full range of variety and variability within and
among living organisms and the ecological complexes
in which they would have occurred in the absence of
significant human impact, and encompasses diversity
within a species (genetic diversity), among species
(species diversity), within a community of species
(within-community diversity), between communities
of species (between-communities diversity), within a
total area such as a watershed (total area diversity),
along a plane from ground to sky (vertical diversity),
and along the plane of the earth-surface (horizontal
diversity). Vertical and horizontal diversity apply to
all the other aspects of diversity.
‘‘(B) The terms ‘conserve’ and ‘conservation’
refer to protective measures for maintaining existing
native biological diversity and active and passive
measures for restoring diversity through manage-
ment efforts, in order to protect, restore, and en-
hance as much of the variety of species and commu-
nities as possible in abundances and distributions
that provide for their continued existence and nor-
mal functioning, including the viability of popu-
lations throughout their natural geographic distribu-
tions.
‘‘(C) The term ‘within-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of species and ec-
ological processes that occur in different physical
settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of the
world.
‘‘(D) The term ‘genetic diversity’ means the dif-
ferences in genetic composition within and among
populations of a given species.
‘‘(E) The term ‘between-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of communities
and ecological processes that occur in different phys-
ical settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of
the world.
‘‘(F) The term ‘species diversity’ means the
richness and variety of native species in a particular
location of the world.
‘‘(G) The term ‘group selection’ means a form
of selection management that emphasizes the peri-
odic removal of trees, including mature, undesirable,
and cull trees in small groups, where they occur that
way, with a result of (i) creating openings not to ex-
ceed in width in any direction the height of the tall-
est tree standing within 10 feet outside the edge of
the group cut, and (ii) maintaining different age
groups in a given stand. In no event will more than
30 percent of the basal area of a stand be felled
within 40 years. The foregoing limitation shall not
be deemed to establish a 100-year projected felling
age as the standard at which individual trees in a
stand are to be cut, nor shall native biodiversity be
limited to that which occurs within the context of a
100-year projected felling age.
‘‘(H) The term ‘stand’ means a biological com-
munity with enough identity by location, topography,
or dominant species to be managed as a unit, not to
exceed 100 acres.
‘‘(I) The term ‘clearcutting’ means the logging
of more than one-half of the commercial trees in a
patch larger than a group defined in subparagraph
(G) or in a stand of any size in a short period of
time.
‘‘(J) The term ‘evenage management’ means
the growing of timber so that all trees in a patch or
stand are generally within 10 years of the same age.
Except for designated leave trees, or clumps of trees
comprising less than two-thirds of the patch or
stand, the patch or stand is logged, completely in
any acre within a period of 30 years, by clearcutting,
salvage logging, seed-tree cutting or shelterwood cut-
ting, two-age management or high grading, or any
system other than selection management.
‘‘(K) The term ‘salvage logging’ means the fell-
ing or further damaging, within any 30-year period,
of more than one-half the volume per acre of dead,
damaged, or other trees, or any combination of such
trees.
‘‘(L) The term ‘seed-tree cut’ means an evenage
logging operation that leaves a small minority of
seed trees in a stand for any period of time.
‘‘(M) The term ‘selection management’ means
the application of logging and other actions needed
to maintain continuous high forest cover where such
cover naturally occurs, recurring natural regenera-
tion of all native species on the site, and the orderly
growth and development of trees through a range of
diameter or age classes to provide a sustained yield
of forest products. Cutting methods that develop and
maintain selection stands are individual-tree and
group selection. An essential element of selection is
improvement of quality by continuously felling trees
less likely to contribute to the long-range health of
the stand.
‘‘(N) The term ‘shelterwood cut’ means an
evenaged logging operation that leaves a minority
(larger than in a seed-tree cut) of the stand as a
seed source or protection cover remaining standing
for any period of time.
‘‘(O) The term ‘timber purposes’ shall include
the use, sale, lease, or distribution of trees, or the
felling of trees or portions of trees except to create
land space for a structure or other use.
‘‘(4)(A)(i) The purpose of this paragraph is to foster
the widest possible enforcement of subsection (c) and this
subsection.
‘‘(ii) Congress finds that all people of the United
States are injured by actions on lands to which subsection
(c) and this subsection apply.
‘‘(B) The provisions of subsection (c) and this sub-
section shall be enforced by the Secretary of the Interior
and the Attorney General of the United States against any
person who violates either of them.
‘‘(C)(i) Any citizen harmed by a violation of this Act
may enforce any provision of subsection (c) and this sub-
section by bringing an action for declaratory judgment,
temporary restraining order, injunction, civil penalty, and
other remedies against any alleged violator including the
United States, in any district court of the United States.
‘‘(ii) The court, after determining a violation of either
of such subsections shall impose a penalty of not less than
$5,000 and not more than $50,000 per violation, shall
issue one or more injunctions and other equitable relief
and shall award to the plaintiffs reasonable costs of litiga-
tion including attorney’s fees, witness fees and other nec-
essary expenses.
‘‘(iii) The standard of proof in all actions brought
under this subparagraph shall be the preponderance of the
evidence and the trial shall be de novo.
‘‘(D) The penalty authorized by subparagraph (C)(ii)
shall be paid by the violator or violators designated by the
court. If that violator is the United States of America or
a Federal agency or officer, the penalty shall be paid to
the Judgment Fund, as provided by Congress under sec-
tion 1304 of title 31, United States Code.
‘‘(E) The penalty should be paid from the Judgment
Fund within 40 days after judgment to the person or per-
sons designated to receive it, to be applied in protecting
or restoring native biodiversity in or adjoining Federal
land. Any award of costs of litigation and any award of
attorney fees shall be paid within 40 days after judgment.
‘‘(F) The United States, including its agents and em-
ployees waives its sovereign immunity in all respects in
all actions under subsection (c) and this subsection. No
notice is required to enforce this subsection.’’.
SEC. 7. AMENDMENT OF TITLE 10, UNITED STATES CODE,
RELATING TO FOREST MANAGEMENT ON
MILITARY LANDS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 159 of title 10, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the follow-
ing new section:
‘‘§ 2695. Conservation of native biodiversity
‘‘(a) CONSERVATION OF NATIVE BIODIVERSITY.—
Regardless of any other provision in this Act, in each
stand and each watershed throughout each forested area
on a military installation or projects administered by the
Army Corps of Engineers, the Secretary concerned shall
provide for the conservation or restoration of native bio-
diversity, except during authorized construction projects
in which events the Secretary shall conserve native bio-
diversity to the extent possible.
‘‘(b) RESTRICTION ON USE OF CERTAIN LOGGING
PRACTICES.—(1) In each stand and watershed throughout
each forested area, the Secretary shall prohibit any
evenage logging and any evenage management after the
date of enactment of this subsection.
‘‘(2) On each site already under evenage manage-
ment, the Secretary shall (A) prescribe a shift to selection
management within one year, or (B) cease managing for
timber purposes and actively restore the native biodiver-
sity, or permit each site to regain its native biodiversity.
‘‘(3) In this section:
‘‘(A) The term ‘native biodiversity’ means the
full range of variety and variability within and
among living organisms and the ecological complexes
in which they would have occurred in the absence of
significant human impact, and encompasses diversity
within a species (genetic diversity), among species
(species diversity), within a community of species
(within-community diversity), between communities
of species (between-communities diversity), within a
total area such as a watershed (total area diversity),
along a plane from ground to sky (vertical diversity),
and along the plane of the earth-surface (horizontal
diversity). Vertical and horizontal diversity apply to
all the other aspects of diversity.
‘‘(B) The terms ‘conserve’ and ‘conservation’
refer to protective measures for maintaining existing
native biological diversity and active and passive
measures for restoring diversity through manage-
ment efforts, in order to protect, restore, and en-
hance as much of the variety of species and commu-
nities as possible in abundances and distributions
that provide for their continued existence and nor-
mal functioning, including the viability of popu-
lations throughout their natural geographic distribu-
tions.
‘‘(C) The term ‘within-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of species and ec-
ological processes that occur in different physical
settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of the
world.
‘‘(D) The term ‘genetic diversity’ means the dif-
ferences in genetic composition within and among
populations of a given species.
‘‘(E) The term ‘between-community diversity’
means the distinctive assemblages of communities
and ecological processes that occur in different phys-
ical settings of the biosphere and distinct parts of
the world.
‘‘(F) The term ‘species diversity’ means the
richness and variety of native species in a particular
location of the world.
‘‘(G) The term ‘group selection’ means a form
of selection management that emphasizes the peri-
odic removal of trees, including mature, undesirable,
and cull trees in small groups, where they occur that
way, with a result of (i) creating openings not to ex-
ceed in width in any direction the height of the tall-
est tree standing within 10 feet outside the edge of
the group cut, and (ii) maintaining different age
groups in a given stand. In no event will more than
30 percent of the basal area of a stand be felled
within 40 years. The foregoing limitation shall not
be deemed to establish a 100-year projected felling
age as the standard at which individual trees in a
stand are to be cut, nor shall native biodiversity be
limited to that which occurs within the context of a
100-year projected felling age.
‘‘(H) The term ‘stand’ means a biological com-
munity with enough identity by location, topography,
or dominant species to be managed as a unit, not to
exceed 100 acres.
‘‘(I) The term ‘clearcutting’ means the logging
of more than one-half of the commercial trees in a
patch larger than a group defined in subparagraph
(G) or in a stand of any size in a short period of
time.
‘‘(J) The term ‘evenage management’ means
the growing of timber so that all trees in a patch or
stand are generally within 10 years of the same age.
Except for designated leave trees, or clumps of trees
comprising less than two-thirds of the patch or
stand, the patch or stand is logged, completely in
any acre within a period of 30 years, by clearcutting,
salvage logging, seed-tree cutting or shelterwood cut-
ting, two-age management or high grading, or any
system other than selection management.
‘‘(K) The term ‘salvage logging’ means the fell-
ing or further damaging, within any 30-year period,
of more than one-half the volume per acre of dead,
damaged, or other trees, or any combination of such
trees.
‘‘(L) The term ‘seed-tree cut’ means an evenage
logging operation that leaves a small minority of
seed trees in a stand for any period of time.
‘‘(M) The term ‘selection management’ means
the application of logging and other actions needed
to maintain continuous high forest cover where such
cover naturally occurs, recurring natural regenera-
tion of all native species on the site, and the orderly
growth and development of trees through a range of
diameter or age classes to provide a sustained yield
of forest products. Cutting methods that develop and
maintain selection stands are individual-tree and
group selection. An essential element of selection is
improvement of quality by continuously felling trees
less likely to contribute to the long-range health of
the stand.
‘‘(N) The term ‘shelterwood cut’ means an
evenaged logging operation that leaves a minority
(larger than in a seed-tree cut) of the stand as a
seed source or protection cover remaining standing
for any period of time.
‘‘(O) The term ‘timber purposes’ shall include
the use, sale, lease, or distribution of trees, or the
felling of trees or portions of trees except to create
land space for a structure or other use.