II 
Calendar No. 469
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H.R. 2696 
[Report No. 108–252] 
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. 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
FEBRUARY 25, 2004
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources 
MARCH 29, 2004
Reported by Mr. DOMENICI, without amendment 
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; and 
(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-
(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