“Air Quality Impacts of Wildfires: Mitigation and Management Strategies.”
Thank you to Chairman Walden, Ranking Member Pallone, Subcommittee Chairman Shimkus, Ranking Member Tonko, and the members of this subcommittee for convening this important hearing on a critical issue facing our communities, public health, and wildlife.
My name is
Healthy forests underpin a healthy economy and help protect clean water, clean air, our climate, and essential ecosystems. Yet, the ability of our National Forests to do so has been jeopardized by inadequate restoration and management and escalating climate impacts, both of which exacerbate the threat and consequences of increasingly intense wildfires.
Across our country, wildlife and human communities are living alongside the threat of wildfire. For high-risk communities that have not burned, residents fear evacuation orders and the ominous red glow fire casts on the horizon. For those that have experienced modern megafires, they are rebuilding or helping neighbors recover -- even as the threat of future fires looms.
Over the past three years, more than 25 million acres of
In our report issued last year, Megafires: The Growing Risk to America's Forests, Communities, and Wildlife, the
Wildfire is a natural, and even healthy, phenomenon for forests and wildlife habitat, but this new normal is anything but for millions of Americans and the forests central to our wildlife heritage.
Last year, we saw smoke so thick in places, like
The
Providing Sufficient Funding
This March,
We at the
We urge
Enhancing Collaborative Forest Management
A flexible, collaborative decision-making process is key to minimizing the threat of megafires.
Building upon the fire funding fix and additional tools provided by
If Members want to explore additional tools, it is clear the best path forward is the bipartisan approach that resulted in
* Reauthorizing the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program.
* Adding lodgepole pine restoration projects in Fire Regime IV to the Healthy Forest Restoration Act categorical exclusion for priority projects, and to the list of projects that can receive the expedited, focused analysis of the proposed action, no action, and a possible third alternative.
* Reauthorizing appropriations to treat insect and disease infestations.
* Incentivizing forest management projects under the
*
* Passing the Timber Innovation Program, currently in the Senate Farm Bill, to create new markets for wood byproducts from forest restoration projects.
Advancing Ecologically-Sound Prescribed Burns
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, increasing prescribed burns is one of the most effective tools to improve forest health and reduce long-term adverse public health impacts, especially when combined with strategic efforts to reduce fuel loads in ways that do not harm biodiversity. While some debate has emerged about the health tradeoffs of engaging in strategic prescribed burns as a key management strategy to mitigate long-term fire risks, studies have consistently shown that prescribed burns emit 10 times to 100 times less particulate matter than wildfires. USFS and States take significant precautions to reduce the health impacts from prescribed burns, such as establishing hourly and daily PM 2.5 limits, as well as specific plans to support at-risk populations, but it should not be lost that the health impacts of uncontrolled wildfires are on average 90-99% worse than prescribed burns.
We agree that funding, interagency collaboration, and insufficient capacity are the most significant barriers to increasing the utilization of prescribed burns--obstacles that the fire funding fix should help alleviate.
We do not believe that changes are necessary to the Clean Air Act to allow for more prescribed burns, but we do believe that
Further, the federal government could play a much more proactive role in bringing stakeholders together to advance best practices to accelerate the adoption of prescribed burns. The USFS Shared Stewardship Strategy takes important steps in this direction and we are working with Secretary Perdue to implement its recommendations. In addition, states should be encouraged and incentivized to continue to improve their Smoke Management Plans and implement best practices that protect public health, such as flexibility for communities that take measures to protect vulnerable populations, while encouraging greater collaboration and resourcing to ensure that prescribed burns occur at appropriate times and scales.
Acting on Climate
No conversation about improving forest health is complete without confronting the changing climatic conditions that are exacerbating megafires, especially less precipitation, drier soils and vegetation, and warmer temperatures. We urge Members to collaborate across party lines to advance bipartisan solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the accelerated adoption of land management practices that increase the carbon sequestration capacity of natural systems, like forests, grasslands and wetlands, as well as from fossil fuel sources through market-based mechanisms (e.g. price on carbon).
Ensuring Implementation Oversight
Conclusion
We appreciate the Committee focusing on identifying solutions that would reduce these health consequences of escalating megafires. We encourage the Committee to pursue the numerous bipartisan, science-based solutions that are within reach. We believe that a comprehensive approach, including providing sufficient funding, enhancing collaborative forest management, advancing ecologically-sound prescribed burns, acting on climate, and ensuring implementation oversight, will benefit people and wildlife alike. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this critical issue.
Read this original document at: http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF18/20180913/108679/HHRG-115-IF18-Wstate-OMaraC-20180913.pdf
House Panel Backs Bill To Make Trump Tax Cuts Permanent
“Advanced Nuclear Technology: Safety and Associated Benefits of Licensing Accident Tolerant Fuels for Commercial Nuclear Reactors.”
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News