Westerman submits wildfire bill

Dec. 17--An Arkansas congressman submitted a bill this week he hopes will curb devastating wildfires.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, introduced H.R. 7315, the Protecting American Communities from Wildfire Act, on Thursday.

Westerman is the only forester in Congress and has attempted several times over the past three years in his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives to usher legislation through various channels that addresses U.S. Forest Service issues like "fire borrowing" and litigation that hamstrings the Forest Service from forest management.

Most recently, these efforts to curb wildfires were seen in the forestry title of the 2018 Farm Bill. Although the bill passed in the House, it was nixed in the Senate.

"As more and more Americans move closer to our nation's forests, it is imperative that Congress protect our communities from the devastation of wildfire," Westerman said in a news release Friday. "The lack of large-scale forest management -- combined with a patchwork of state, local, tribal, and federal landowners -- has resulted in dangerous, unhealthy forests, which in turn has led to the catastrophic, deadly fires we see today. Congress must act to protect American lives, property and watersheds."

H.R. 7315 accomplishes these goals, Westerman contends, by providing the Forest Service with the management tools it needs to "rapidly treat the Federal Forests in the Wildland-Urban Interface and simultaneously provides additional grant funding to at-risk communities." The act would also support the purchase of new firefighting equipment and the FIREWISE Program.

Some of the other features of the bill include:

--Provides the U.S. Forest Service the authority to prescribe forest treatment plans within the Wildland-Urban interface, creating a "halo of managed timber around an at-risk community."

--The Wildland-Urban Interface is a term defined on the local level: at-risk communities can tailor the amount of protective treatment needed for their town.

--Provides Forest Service the authority to prescribe forest treatment plans around the watersheds, which supply at-risk communities, ensuring a steady supply of clean drinking water

--Categorically excludes the prescribed action from lengthy NEPA review, ensuring that this critical protection is rapidly implemented.

The bill would also create additional state fire assistance funding by reauthorizing the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 at $100 million a year from 2019 to 2024. That is a $20 million increase from current funding levels.

"This investment will be distributed as block grant funding to states looking to implement protective forest management, with programs ranging from technical assistance to community preparation, like FIREWISE," the release explains.

The funding will incentivize state, local, and tribal landowners to ensure that protective forest management is implemented at the landscape level, it adds.

With restoration in the Wildland-Urban interface costing millions annually, investment in preventative measures now will save taxpayers money over the long run, Westerman stated.

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