Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing on a discussion draft titled "Returning Resilience to our Overgrown, Fire-prone National Forests Act of 2015." 

“I want to thank Forest Service Chief Tidwell and all of our witnesses for the positive testimony on the Committee’s draft legislation. As we heard today, there is consensus that money alone solves neither the underlying management crisis at the Forest Service nor adequately mitigates the growing threat of catastrophic wildfire. This bill, as the Chief today acknowledged, includes thoughtful reforms that will help the Service build back healthy, productive, and less fire-prone forest lands,” stated Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT).

“As even my Democrat colleagues today acknowledged, we must increase the efficiency with which the agency fulfills its management responsibilities. That’s precisely what this legislation does,” Bishop added. “I commend Reps. Westerman, Zinke and McClintock for their leadership in introducing the Returning Resilience to our Overgrown, Fire-prone National Forests Act of 2015, and look forward to moving this bill forward.” 

Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-MA) stated during the hearing, “Everyone agrees that we must increase the pace of restoration work to limit the impacts of catastrophic wildfires and improve the long-term health of our forests.”

“In recent years, the Forest Service has made great strides in the pursuit of efficiencies, and we are generally supportive of provisions that will help us pursue treatment at the landscape scale quickly, efficiently, and in a reasonable time to address problems before they can worsen,” U.S. Forest Chief Tom Tidwell stated on the discussion draft in written testimony.  “We look forward to continuing to work with you on the language of this bill to find efficiencies within the scope of important existing environmental laws.”

During the hearing, Chief Tidwell added: “On some of the categorical exclusions (CE), I think there are opportunities. When we have a categorical exclusion, we still address all of the environmental issues. But one of the key issues is that there is always a concern from some members of the public. So, if we can find a way to maintain that public trust, we can move forward with using CEs. It’s similar to what we are using under the 2014 Farm Bill that has allowed us to expedite our processes. The challenge is to find that balance, I think the draft legislation goes a long way to address these opportunities.”

Visit the website for more information on the hearing and witnesses.