More than 80 million acres of
national forests are overgrown
Obernolte
& House Representative
Natural
Resources Committee
Introduces
Major Wildfire Prevention Legislation
July 26, 2021 _ Washington D.C.___ 8th Congressional
District U.S. Congressman
Jay Obernolte (R-CA) joined U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural
Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-AK), House Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy (R-CA), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), Congressional
Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and 66 other members in introducing
the bipartisan Resilient Federal Forests Act, a major piece of legislation designed to
mitigate catastrophic wildfires and improve forest health. Representative Jay Obernolte’s SALVAGE
Act, introduced last week, was included as part of the bill.
“More than 80 million acres of national forests are overgrown,
fire-prone and in dire need of active management,” comments Representative
Obernolte. “My SALVAGE
Act, along with the larger Resilient Federal Forests Act will
dramatically improve our resiliency to wildfires by removing barriers to good
forest management and delivering the science and tools needed to keep our
communities safe.”
"Record-breaking wildfires in
the West repeatedly highlight the need for proactive, scientific forest
management," Ranking Member Westerman said. "Decades
of mismanagement have led to insect infestation, hazardous fuel buildup and
dead and decaying trees, creating tinderboxes for the smallest stray spark to
ignite a raging inferno. It’s time for Congress to stop sitting on our hands
and actually allow the Forest Service to use proven, scientific methods when
managing our forests so that we can prevent these fires from occurring in the
first place.”
“Look at places like my home state of
Arkansas where drought conditions and environmental stress haven’t been coupled
with an increase in the number or intensity of forest fires. Why? Because
Arkansas has a robust and prosperous forest economy through which we actively
manage both our public and private forests. Science shows forest management
drastically improves the health of a forest, which is why the Resilient Federal Forests Act is so important. Every year we delay action means more lives,
homes, property and wildlife habitats are destroyed by wildfires. There is no
time to waste.!"
The Resilient Federal Forests
Act is supported by more than 85
organizations and takes key steps to address the environmental and economic
threats of catastrophic wildfires. The bill uses state-of-the-art science to
triage the top 10 percent of high-risk fire-sheds and simplify bureaucratic red
tape associated with forest management to speed critical projects, reduce costs
and streamline environmental reviews. It also incentivizes collaborative
projects of up to 30,000 acres to increase the pace and scale of active
management, while creating new, innovative authorities that increase tribal
management of forestlands and ensure equal state participation in forest
management activities.
Representative Jay Obernolte’s SALVAGE Act,
included in the bill, gives more flexibility and expediency to salvage and
reforestation projects on federal lands, helping to lower fire risks, decrease
the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, and revitalize rural areas
across California and the West.
In places like California’s 8th Congressional
District, where 90 percent of the land is federally owned, this change in law
would substantially improve forest management and prevent wildfires that
threaten local communities.