Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004
PL 108-317 (H.R.2696), enacted 10/05/2004

118 STAT. 1204
PUBLIC LAW 108–317—OCT. 5, 2004
Public Law 108–317
108th Congress
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 Representatives 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
removed flammable undergrowth;
(3) at least 39,000,000 acres of land of the National Forest
System in the interior West are at high risk of wildfire;
(4) an average of 95 percent of the expenditures 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 management intervention before damage
16 USC 6701.
16 USC 6701
note.
Southwest Forest
Health and
Wildfire
Prevention Act of
2004.
Arizona.
New Mexico.
Oct. 5, 2004
[H.R. 2696]
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118 STAT. 1205
PUBLIC LAW 108–317—OCT. 5, 2004
from uncontrollable wildfire becomes widespread, with 8 years
having already elapsed since the assessment;
(10) healthy forest and woodland ecosystems—
(A) reduce the risk of wildfire to forests and commu-
nities;
(B) improve wildlife habitat and biodiversity;
(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 economically
and environmentally sustainable uses;
(11) sustaining the long-term ecological and economic
health of interior West forests and woodland, and their associ-
ated human communities requires preventing severe wildfires
before the wildfires occur and permitting natural, low-intensity
ground fires;
(12) more natural fire regimes cannot be accomplished
without the reduction of excess fuels and thinning of subdomi-
nant trees (which fuels and trees may be of commercial value);
(13) ecologically based forest and woodland ecosystem res-
toration on a landscape scale will—
(A) improve long-term community protection;
(B) minimize the need for wildfire suppression;
(C) improve resource values;
(D) improve the ecological integrity and resilience 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 effec-
tively reverse degradation, scientific understanding of land-
scape scale treatments is limited;
(15) rigorous, objective, understandable, and applied sci-
entific information is needed for—
(A) the design, implementation, monitoring, and
adaptation of landscape scale restoration 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 conven-
tional research programs to the implementation 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—
16 USC 6702.
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118 STAT. 1206
PUBLIC LAW 108–317—OCT. 5, 2004
(A) to use ecological restoration treatments to reverse
declining forest health and reduce the risk of severe
wildfires across the forest landscape; and
(B) to design, implement, monitor, and regularly revise
representative 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 information, assistance with
environmental review, and field and classroom training
and collaboration) to accomplish the goals identified in—
(i) the National Fire Plan;
(ii) the report entitled ‘‘Protecting People and Sus-
taining Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosystems-A Cohe-
sive 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’ Association;
(6) to provide technical assistance to collaborative efforts
by affected entities to develop, implement, and monitor adaptive
ecosystem management restoration treatments that are eco-
logically 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 resource management
process under which planning, implementation, monitoring,
research, evaluation, and incorporation of new knowledge
are combined into a management approach that—
(i) is based on scientific findings and the needs
of society;
(ii) treats management actions as experiments;
(iii) acknowledges the complexity of these systems
and scientific uncertainty; and
(iv) uses the resulting new knowledge to modify
future management methods and policy.
(B) CLARIFICATION.—This paragraph shall not define
the term ‘‘adaptive ecosystem management’’ for the pur-
poses of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources
Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.).
(2) AFFECTED
ENTITIES.—The term ‘‘affected entities’’
includes—
(A) land managers;
(B) stakeholders;
(C) concerned citizens; and
(D) the States of the interior West, including political
subdivisions of the States.
16 USC 6703.
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118 STAT. 1207
PUBLIC LAW 108–317—OCT. 5, 2004
(3) DRY
FOREST
AND
WOODLAND
ECOSYSTEM.—The term
‘‘dry forest and woodland ecosystem’’ means an ecosystem that
is dominated by ponderosa pines and associated dry forest
and woodland 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 manager’’ means a
person or entity that practices or guides natural resource
management.
(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘land manager’’ 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 ecosystem or habitat;
or
(B) a condition that supports a natural complement
of species, natural function, or ecological 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 management of forest or
woodland ecosystems.
(11) SUBDOMINANT
TREES.—Are trees that occur under-
neath the canopy or extend into the canopy but are smaller
and less vigorous than dominant trees.
(12) OVERSTOCKED STANDS.—Where the number of trees
per acre exceeds the natural carrying capacity of the site.
(13) RESILIENCE.—The ability of a system to absorb disturb-
ance without being pushed into a different, possibly less desir-
able stable state.
SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF INSTITUTES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consultation with the Sec-
retary of the Interior, shall—
(1) not later than 180 days after the date of enactment
of this Act, establish Institutes to promote 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 promote the
use of collaborative processes and adaptive ecosystem manage-
ment in accordance with paragraph (1).
(b) LOCATION.—
(1) EXISTING
INSTITUTES.—The Secretary may designate
an institute in existence on the date of enactment of this
Act to serve as an Institute established under this Act.
(2) STATES.—Of the Institutes established under this Act,
the Secretary shall establish 1 Institute in each of—
Deadline.
16 USC 6704.
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118 STAT. 1208
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(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 engaging the full
resources of the consortium of universities represented in
the Institute of Natural Resource Analysis and Manage-
ment (INRAM); and
(C) the State of Colorado.
(c) DUTIES.—Each Institute shall—
(1) develop, conduct research on, transfer, promote, 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 conven-
tional research to implement restoration-based hazardous fuel
reduction treatments on a landscape scale using an adaptive
ecosystem management framework;
(3) translate for and transfer to affected entities any sci-
entific and interdisciplinary knowledge about restoration-based
hazardous fuel reduction treatments;
(4) assist affected entities with the design of adaptive
management 
approaches 
(including 
monitoring) 
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 programs at col-
leges, community colleges, and universities in the States of
Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado that have a demonstrated
capability to conduct research described in subsection (c); and
(2) other organizations and entities in the interior West
(such as the Western Governors’ Association).
(f) ANNUAL WORK PLANS.—As a condition of the receipt of
funds made available under this Act, for each fiscal 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 informational 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 established at the locations named in
subsection (b)(2) would be constructive for other interior West
States, the Secretary may establish 1 institute in each of those
States.
SEC. 6. COOPERATION BETWEEN INSTITUTES AND FEDERAL AGEN-
CIES.
In carrying out this Act, the Secretary, in consultation with
the Secretary of the Interior—
(1) to the extent that funds are appropriated for the pur-
pose, shall provide financial and technical assistance to the
16 USC 6705.
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118 STAT. 1209
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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 provided by the Institutes;
(3) shall encourage cooperation and coordination 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 agreements, and
interagency personnel agreements to carry out this Act;
and
(B) carry out other transactions under this Act;
(5) may accept funds from other Federal agencies to supple-
ment 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 graduate 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 thereafter, the Secretary,
in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, shall complete
and submit to the Committee on Resources and the Committee
on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a detailed
evaluation of the programs and activities of each Institute—
(1) to ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that
the research, communication tools, and information transfer
activities of each Institute are sufficient to achieve the purposes
of this Act, including—
(A) implementing active adaptive ecosystem manage-
ment practices at the landscape level;
(B) reducing unnecessary planning costs;
(C) avoiding duplicative and conflicting efforts;
(D) increasing public acceptance of active adaptive eco-
system management practices; and
(E) achieving general satisfaction on the part of
affected entities;
(2) to determine the extent to which each Institute has
implemented its duties under section 5(c); and
(3) to determine whether continued provision of Federal
assistance to each Institute is warranted.
(b) TERMINATION OF ASSISTANCE.—If, as a result of an evalua-
tion under subsection (a), the Secretary, in consultation with the
Secretary of the Interior, determines that an Institute does not
qualify for further Federal assistance under this Act, the Institute
shall receive no further Federal assistance under this Act until
such time as the qualifications of the Institute are reestablished
to the satisfaction of the Secretaries.
Deadline.
16 USC 6706.
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118 STAT. 1210
PUBLIC LAW 108–317—OCT. 5, 2004
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—H.R. 2696:
HOUSE REPORTS: No. 108–397, Pt. 1 (Comm. on Resources).
SENATE REPORTS: No. 108–252 (Comm. on Energy and Natural Resources).
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 149 (2004):
Feb. 24, considered and passed House.
Sept. 15, considered and passed Senate.
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appropriated 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 constructing any facilities.
Approved October 5, 2004.
16 USC 6707.
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