On December 3, President George W. Bush signed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 into law at a ceremony at USDA headquarters in Washington DC. Surrounded by Forest Service Hot Shot team members from California and other Forest Service employees, Bush said that with the new law: “we will help save lives and property, and we’ll help protect our forests from sudden and needless destruction.”

Today about 190 million acres of federal lands are at risk of severe wildfires due to uncharacteristic fuel build-up, disease, and insect infestation. “In two years’ time, fires throughout the country have burned nearly 11 million acres,” Bush said. In California alone, more than 739,000 acres burned and at least 3,600 homes were destroyed.

“Just as USDA helps farmers and ranchers be better stewards of their land, the new law will give us new tools to better manage lands that are under federal ownership,” said Secretary Ann M. Veneman.

One of the driving forces to reduce fuel build-up in forests is the firefighters themselves. “The principles behind the Healthy Forests Initiative were not invented in the White House, and, truthfully, not invented in the Congress. They are founded on the experience of scientists, forestry experts, and as importantly, the firefighters who know what they’re talking about,” Bush said.

Leslie Weldon, supervisor of the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, agrees. “Our biggest concern is to limit how we put people at risk. The goal is to change and prevent certain fire behavior to reduce risk after fires get started,” she said.

For example, 91,000 acres of Oregon’s Deschutes and Willamette National Forests burned last summer. “I have never seen a fire that big,” Weldon said. Yet within the burned area, acreage that had been treated to reduce fuels burned differently. “Where we had done thinning, reduced fuel, and made more space between trees, the fire burned closer to the ground, burning brush and leaving more fire-resistant trees,” she said.

In contrast, areas that weren’t treated saw the fires crown--jumping from treetop to treetop--burning so hot that trees exploded. “The last thing you want is firefighters in there,” said Susan Yonts-Shepard, the Forest Service’s associate deputy chief for programs, legislation, and communications. “In addition to being enormously risky for any firefighter, a fire that burns that hot has a detrimental effect on the soil, wildlife habitat, and the watershed,” she said.

The new law emphasizes hazardous fuel reduction through various methods including thinning and prescribed fire on up to 20 million acres of federal land. Considering community wildfire protection plans--and collaborating with local communities who know best where hazard areas exist--will identify high priority areas. At least 50 percent of the funds allocated for projects will be used for this purpose.

In addition, the law instructs courts asked to halt projects to balance the short-term effects of implementing the project against the harm from undue delay and the long-term benefits of a restored forest.

“I’ve had fires start nine miles away in a wilderness area and burn down toward a town,” Weldon said. “What the law will do is require the court to consider the consequences of not doing ‘critical work’ in a small community surrounded by forests. We want to avoid seeing communities consumed by fire because work was not allowed to commence,” she said.

To make the most of the law’s focus on doing the right work in the right places, Weldon said, “we have been working closely with different interested parties in the public to define the types of action we need to take for forest health and to protect communities--so that when we do have a project we have broad agreement.” 

            For more information on the new law go to: http://www.fs.fed.us/projects/hfi/ •