[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2696 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
H.R.2696
One Hundred Eighth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the twentieth day of January, two thousand and four
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 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 communities;
(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 associated 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 subdominant trees
(which fuels and trees may be of commercial value);
(13) ecologically based forest and woodland ecosystem
restoration 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
effectively reverse degradation, scientific understanding of
landscape scale treatments is limited;
(15) rigorous, objective, understandable, and applied
scientific 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
conventional 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--
(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
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 Environment'' 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 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 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 purposes 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.
(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 underneath 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 disturbance
without being pushed into a different, 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 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 management 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--
(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 Management (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 conventional
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
scientific 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 colleges,
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 AGENCIES.
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 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 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 supplement
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 Committee 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 management
practices at the landscape level;
(B) reducing unnecessary planning costs;
(C) avoiding duplicative and conflicting efforts;
(D) increasing public acceptance of active adaptive
ecosystem 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 evaluation
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.
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.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.