[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1314 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1314
To expedite procedures for hazardous fuels reduction activities on
National Forest System lands established from the public domain and
other public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, to
improve the health of National Forest System lands established from the
public domain and other public lands administered by the Bureau of Land
Management, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 23, 2003
Mr. Bingaman (for himself, Mr. Daschle, Mrs. Murray, and Ms. Cantwell)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To expedite procedures for hazardous fuels reduction activities on
National Forest System lands established from the public domain and
other public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, to
improve the health of National Forest System lands established from the
public domain and other public lands administered by the Bureau of Land
Management, and for other purposes.
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 ``Collaborative Forest Health Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act:
(1) The term ``at-risk community'' means--
(A) an urban wildland ``interface'' or ``intermix''
community as those terms were defined by the
Secretaries on January 4, 2001 (66 FR 753), or
(B) consisting of a collection of homes or other
structures with basic infrastructure and services, such
as utilities, collectively maintained transportation
routes, and emergency services;
(i) on which conditions are conducive to
large-scale fire disturbance events; and
(ii) for which a significant risk exists of
a resulting spread of the fire disturbance
event, after ignition, which would threaten
human life and property.
(2) The term ``community protection zone'' means an at-risk
community and an area within one-half mile of an at-risk
community.
(3) The term ``Secretaries'' means the Secretary of
Agriculture with respect to National Forest System lands and
the Secretary of the Interior with respect to public lands
administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
(4) The term ``1890 Institution'' means a college or
university eligible to receive funds under the Act of August
30, 1890 (7 U.S.C. 321 et seq.), including Tuskegee University.
(5) The term ``Federal lands'' means public lands as
defined in section 103(e) of the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act (43 U.S.C. 1702(e)) and the National Forest
System as defined in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland
Renewable Resources Planning Act (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).
SEC. 3. EXPEDITED PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS.
(a) Categorical Exclusion.--Subject to subsection (h), the
Secretaries may find that a proposed hazardous fuels reduction project,
including prescribed fire, that removes no more than 250,000 board feet
of merchantable wood products or removes as salvage 1,000,000 board
feet or less of merchantable wood products and assures regeneration of
harvested or salvaged areas will not individually or cumulatively have
a significant effect on the human environment and, therefore, neither
an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is
required.
(b) Public Meeting.--Prior to implementing a project pursuant to
subsection (a), the Secretaries shall conduct a public meeting at an
appropriate location proximate to the administrative unit of the
Federal lands in which the project will be conducted. The Secretaries
shall provide advance notice of the date and time of the meeting.
(c) Collaboration.--
(1) The Secretaries shall identify projects implemented
pursuant to this section through a collaborative framework as
described in the Implementation Plan for the 10-year
Comprehensive Strategy for a Collaborative Approach for
Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the
Environment, dated May 2002, developed pursuant to the
Conference Report to the Department of the Interior and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2001 (H. Rept. 106-646) to
reduce hazardous fuels. Any project carried out pursuant to
this section shall be consistent with the applicable forest
plan, resource management plan, or other applicable agency
plans.
(2) The Secretaries shall ensure that local level
collaboration includes Tribal representatives, local
representatives from Federal and State agencies, local
governments, landowners, other stakeholders, and community-
based groups.
(3) The Secretaries shall establish incentives or
performance measures to ensure that Federal employees are
committed to collaboration.
(d) Acreage Limitation.--In implementing this section, the
Secretaries shall implement projects on an aggregate area of not more
than 20 million acres of Federal lands. This amount is in addition to
the existing hazardous fuels reduction program that implements projects
on approximately 2.5 million acres each year.
(e) Administrative Appeals.--Projects implemented pursuant to this
section shall not be subject to the appeal requirements of section 322
of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations
Act, 1993 (16 U.S.C. 1612 note) or review by the Department of the
Interior Board of Land Appeals. Nothing in this section affects
projects for which scoping has begun prior to enactment of this Act.
(f) Conclusive Presumption.--Within--
(1) the community protection zone; or
(2) municipal watersheds in which National Environmental
Policy Act documentation and analysis has been completed and no
new road construction is allowed, no timber sales are allowed,
and no log skidding machines are allowed,
unless there are extraordinary circumstances, the decision of either
Secretary that a proposed hazardous fuels reduction project authorized
by subsection (a) is categorically excluded is conclusive as a matter
of law and shall not be subject to judicial review. This conclusive
determination shall apply in any judicial proceeding brought to enforce
the National Environmental Policy Act pursuant to this section.
(g) Excluded Federal Lands.--This section does not apply to any
Federal lands--
(1) included in a wilderness study area or a component of
the National Wilderness Preservation System; or
(2) where logging is prohibited or restricted by an Act of
Congress, presidential proclamation, or agency determination.
(h) Extraordinary Circumstances.--For all projects proposed
pursuant to this section, if there are extraordinary circumstances, the
Secretaries shall follow agency procedures related to categorical
exclusions and extraordinary circumstances consistent with Council on
Environmental Quality regulations.
(i) Reduce Fire Risk and Improve Forest Health.--
(1) In order to ensure that the agencies are implementing
projects pursuant to this section that reduce the risk of
unnaturally intense wildfires and improve forest health, the
Secretaries--
(A) shall not construct or reconstruct new
temporary or permanent roads in inventoried roadless
areas;
(B) shall maintain the integrity of mature and old
growth stands appropriate for each ecosystem type and
shall focus on thinning from below for all forest
thinning projects;
(C) shall use integrated pest management techniques
to forestall significant fuel loading in areas infested
by native insects;
(D) shall require a slash treatment plan when
thinning to reduce hazardous fuels in areas with insect
mortality and limit timber salvage activity to areas
with fifty percent or more mortality; and
(E) shall deposit in the Treasury of the United
States all revenues and receipts generated from
projects implemented pursuant to this Act.
(2) In addition to the requirements set forth in paragraph
(1), the Secretaries shall ensure that projects implemented in
municipal watersheds protect or enhance water quality or water
quantity.
(3) The Secretaries shall not use goods-for-service
contracting to implement projects pursuant to this section.
(j) Long-Term Fuel Management.--In implementing hazardous fuels
reduction projects pursuant to this section, the Secretaries shall
ensure that--
(1) funding to assure completion of all phases of the
project be committed by the management unit before the project
begins;
(2) a follow-up treatment plan describing the long-term
maintenance activities to keep the treated areas within the
historical range of variability, and the project costs, shall
accompany all proposed projects; and
(3) a system to track the budgeting and implementation of
follow-up treatments shall be used to account for the long-term
maintenance of areas managed to reduce hazardous fuels.
(k) Hazardous Fuels Reduction Funding Focus.--In order to focus
hazardous fuels reduction activities on the highest priority areas
where critical issues of human safety and property loss are the most
serious and within municipal watersheds, the Secretaries shall expend
at least seventy percent of the hazardous fuels operations funds
provided annually only on projects within the community protection zone
or within municipal watersheds.
(l) Communities.--
(1) The Secretaries shall expend at least thirty percent of
the hazardous fuels operations funds provided annually on
projects that benefit small businesses that use small diameter
material and woody debris removed in hazardous fuels reduction
treatments and are located in small, economically disadvantaged
communities.
(2) To conduct a project under this section, the
Secretaries shall use local preference contracting and best
value contracting. Best value contracting criteria includes--
(A) the ability of the contractor to meet the
ecological goals of the projects;
(B) the use of equipment that will minimize or
eliminate impacts on soils; and
(C) benefits to local communities such as ensuring
that the byproducts are processed locally.
(m) Monitoring.--
(1) The Secretaries shall jointly establish a commission to
complete an assessment of the positive or negative impacts and
effectiveness of projects implemented under this section. The
commission shall be composed of 12 to 15 members with equal
representation from conservation interests, local communities,
and commodity interests. The Commission shall submit a report
to Congress within 36 months after the date of enactment of
this Act. The report must include identification of the total
dollar value of contracts awarded to natural resource related
small or micro-enterprises, Youth Conservation Corps crews or
related partnerships, entities that hired and trained local
people to complete the contract or agreement, or local entities
that meet the criteria to qualify for the Historically
Underutilized Business Zone Program pursuant to section 32 of
the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 657a).
(2)(A) The Secretaries shall establish a multiparty
monitoring, evaluation, and accountability process in order to
assess a representative sampling of the projects implemented
pursuant to this section.
(B) The Secretaries shall ensure that monitoring data is
collected and compiled in a way that the general public can
easily access. The Secretaries may collect the data using
cooperative agreements, grants, or contracts with small or
micro-enterprises, Youth Conservation Corps work crews or
related partnerships with State, local, and other non-Federal
conservation corps.
(3) Funds to implement this section shall be derived from
hazardous fuels operations funds.
(n) Sunset.--The provisions of this section shall expire five years
after the date of enactment of this Act, except that a project for
which a decision notice, or memorandum in the case of a categorical
exclusion, has been issued before the end of such period may continue
to be implemented using the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 4. INSECT INFESTATIONS.
(a) During fiscal years 2004 and 2008, the Secretaries jointly
shall make available from funds otherwise available in the Treasury,
without further appropriation, $25,000,000 each fiscal year to conduct
a systematic information gathering program on certain insect types that
have caused large-scale damage to forest ecosystems in order to
complete research that can be applied to forest management treatment
and product utilization.
(b) The Secretaries shall establish and carry out the program in
cooperation with scientists from universities and forestry schools,
State agencies, and private and industrial land owners. The Secretaries
shall designate universities and forestry schools, including Land Grant
Colleges and Universities and 1890 institutions, to carry out the
program.
(c) The Secretaries shall ensure that the program includes research
on--
(1) determining how to best use mechanical thinning and
prescribed fire to modify fire behavior and reduce fire risk,
and to improve the scientific basis for design, implementation
and evaluation of hazardous fuels reduction treatments;
(2) gathering systematic information on insect types,
including Emerald Ash Borers, Gypsy Moth, Red Oak Borers, Asian
Longhorned Beetles, and Bark Beetles, that have caused large-
scale damage to forest ecosystems, to establish early detection
programs for insect and disease infestation in order to prevent
massive breakouts, to determine the correlation between insect
mortality and fire risk in specific forest types, and to test
silvicultural systems that use integrated pest management; and
(3) developing new technologies and markets for value-added
products that use the byproducts of insect infestation or
hazardous fuels reduction treatments.
SEC. 5. FIREFIGHTER SAFETY AND TRAINING.
The Secretaries shall track funds expended for firefighter safety
and training and including a line item for such expenditures in future
budget requests.
SEC. 6. BORROWING AUTHORITY FOR FIRE SUPPRESSION.
(a) The Secretary of Agriculture may request up to $250 million in
a fiscal year from the Secretary of the Treasury to cover fire
suppression costs that exceed the amount of funding available to the
Forest Service for fire suppression in a fiscal year.
(b) Upon such request, the Secretary of the Treasury shall make
such sums available to the Secretary of Agriculture, without further
appropriation.
(c) Upon amounts being appropriated by Congress to reimburse funds
transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to this section,
such amounts shall be deposited in the Treasury.
SEC. 7. PROHIBITION ON THE COMPETITIVE SOURCING INITIATIVE.
The Competitive Sourcing Initiative and the Office of Management
and Budget Circular No. A-76, dated May 29, 2003, shall not apply to
the Forest Service.
SEC. 8. WILDFIRE RISK REDUCTION AND BURNED AREA RESTORATION.
(a) In General.--During fiscal years 2004 through 2008, the
Secretaries jointly shall make available from funds otherwise available
in the Treasury, without further appropriation, $100,000,000 each
fiscal year to reduce the risk of wildfire to structures and restore
burned areas on tribal lands, nonindustrial private lands, and State
lands using the authorities available pursuant to this section, the
National Fire Plan and the Emergency Watershed Protection program.
(b) Cost Share Grants.--In implementing this section, the
Secretaries may make cost-share grants to Indian tribes, local fire
districts, municipalities, homeowner associations, and counties, to
remove, transport, and dispose of hazardous fuels around homes and
property to--
(1) prevent structural damage as a result of wildfire, or
(2) to restore or rehabilitate burned areas on non-Federal
lands.
(c) Non-Federal Contribution.--The non-Federal contribution may be
in the form of cash or in-kind contribution.
(d) Priority.--Priority for such funds shall be given to areas
where the applicable local government has enacted ordinances for
wildland areas requiring or promoting brush clearance around homes and
requiring fire-retardant building materials for new construction.
(e) Availability of Funds.--Amounts appropriated in one fiscal year
and unobligated before the end of that fiscal year shall remain
available for use in subsequent fiscal years.
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