Threat from Catastrophic Fires Continues
Our nation’s forests and rangelands are at risk. An estimated 190 million
acres of federal forests and rangelands in the United States, an area
twice the size of California, face high risk of catastrophic fire. Years
of natural fuels buildup, coupled with drought conditions, insect
infestation and disease make forests and rangelands in many areas
throughout the country vulnerable to intense and environmentally
destructive fires. Many ponderosa pine forests are 15 times denser than
they were a century ago. Where 25 to 35 trees once grew on each acre of
forest, now more than 500 trees are crowded together in unhealthy
conditions.
In 2000, the United States suffered its worst wildland fires in 50 years.
Last year’s fire season – among the worst in the past four decades – saw
88,458 fires burn 7.2 million acres, an area larger than the states of
Maryland and Rhode Island combined. Three states – Oregon, Colorado and
Arizona – registered their worst fires in history in 2002.
The Bush Administration – through the Department of the Interior agencies
and the Forest Service at the Department of Agriculture – is responding to
this challenge by: proposing record levels of funding for firefighting (up
55 percent from 2000), hiring additional fire fighters, purchasing
additional equipment, accomplishing record levels of fuels treatment (this
year’s estimated 2.8 million acres being treated is up 1,600,000 acres
since 2000) and by advancing its Healthy Forests Initiative (including
four administrative reforms and proposed legislation) as a long-term
solution.
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Outlook for 2003 Fire Season
Parts of the country, especially the East and the Southeast, are at less
risk of wildfires this year because of substantial winter snow and spring
rainfall. Nationally, so far this year, the number of fires started and
the number of acres burned are half of the eight-year average.
The fire season has not yet started for several states that are at
substantial risk of wildland fire. These include parts of Alaska, Montana,
Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, Colorado, Washington,
Oregon, Michigan and Wisconsin. Snowpack and precipitation is below
average in many of these areas.
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More Resources Available to Fight Fires
To address the wildfire situation, the Bush Administration has worked on a
bi-partisan basis to increase the resources available for fire fighting
and fire preventive fuels treatment work. The result: federal dollars
available in 2003 to fight fires have increased 55 percent since 2000.
These additional dollars have
resulted in more firefighting resources being available. As the following
chart shows, there are more firefighters, helicopters, airtankers, and
heavy equipment to fight fires. This has allowed them to continue to do an
outstanding job of fire fighting, controlling over 99 percent of wildfires
on initial attack in 2002.
This year, firefighting crews and
equipment will be pre-positioned as needed in states to provide effective
initial wildfire attack. Additional helicopters and single engine
airtankers will be used to provide equivalent protection due to the
reduced availability of large, multi-engine air tankers that have been
grounded for safety reasons.
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Record Amounts of Fuels Treatment Work Underway
The long-term solution to catastrophic wildfires is to address their
causes by reducing fuel hazards and returning our forests and rangelands
to healthy conditions. Tree thinning and removal of dense underbrush can
ensure thriving forests while reducing risks of catastrophic fires and the
dangers they pose to firefighters, private property and communities.
The Administration is meeting the challenge. Last year, the Administration
set a record in the amount of fuels treatment work done. More than 2.25
million acres were treated. This is a million acres more than were treated
in FY 2000. By the end of FY 2003, even more acres – 2,853,000 acres – are
projected to be treated. So far this year, 1.4 million acres have been
treated, 133,000 acres more than had been treated at this time last year
and 531,000 acres more than had been treated in 2001. Still, there is much
more work to be done – tens of millions of additional acres are in need of
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The
President’s Healthy Forests Initiative Being Implemented
Over the next several weeks, the Administration will complete the
administrative reforms President Bush called for as part of his Healthy
Forests Initiative. These improvements include:
- establishing new procedures provided
for under the National Environmental Policy Act that will enable
priority fuels treatment (thinning) and forest restoration (reseeding
and planting) projects to proceed quickly. Fuels treatment projects
under this procedure must be identified by federal agency experts
working in collaboration with state, local and tribal governments and
interested persons. Based on the agencies’ experience with over 2,600
projects where environmental analyses showed no significant
environmental impact, the procedures will allow similar new projects to
proceed without the need for further individual analyses and lengthier
documentation;
- amending the agencies’ administrative
appeal rules to expedite appeals of forest health projects and encourage
early and more meaningful public participation. These improvements will
reduce complex procedures, provide more timely decisions and provide
great flexibility in emergency situations;
- expediting consultation by federal
agencies on the impacts that fuels treatment projects may have on
endangered species; and
- implementing the Council on
Environmental Quality guidance intended to establish an improved and
focused process for conducting environmental assessments, is underway.
Fifteen pilot fuels treatment projects using the guidance are expected
to be completed this summer.
On the legislative front, last year
President Bush asked Congress to expand stewardship contracting authority,
which Congress granted. These contracts allow contractors to keep wood
products in exchange for the service of thinning trees and brush and
removing dead wood. Long-term contracts foster a public/private
partnership to restore forest and rangeland health by giving contractors
the incentive to invest in equipment and infrastructure needed to
productively use material generated from forest thinning, such as
small-diameter logs, to make wood products or to produce biomass energy,
all at tremendous savings to taxpayers.
Sixty-two stewardship contracts are projected to be approved this year up
from last year’s total of 26. Substantially more stewardship contracts are
expected to be approved in FY 2004.
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Major Improvements to the Wildfire Program
Since taking office, the Bush Administration has implemented major reforms
to the wildfire program. It reached agreement with Governors, state and
local officials and tribes on a 10-year Comprehensive Strategy and
Implementation Plan for reducing wildland fire risks to communities,
private property and the environment. It established a Wildland Fire
Leadership Council including representatives of federal, state, local, and
tribal interests to coordinate wildland fire management policies. It
required all fuels treatment projects to be collaborated with state and
local officials. It developed common performance measures. It developed an
automated reporting system for federal agencies to track and measure
performance.
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Action by Congress is Needed
The Administration commends the House Agriculture, Judiciary and Resources
Committees for passing H.R. 1904, which would provide authorities that are
largely consistent with the President’s Healthy Forests Initiative. The
Administration strongly supports H.R. 1904 and encourages the House and
Senate to complete action on the bill as soon as possible.
The legislation would provide additional tools for land managers to help
them protect lives and communities, to restore the health of forests and
rangelands, to safeguard important wildlife habitat and watersheds. The
Healthy Forest Restoration Act establishes procedures to expedite forest
and rangeland restoration projects on Forest Service and BLM lands. It
focuses on lands (1) near communities in the wildland urban interface, (2)
in high risk municipal watersheds, (3) that provide important habitat for
threatened and endangered species where wildlife officials have identified
catastrophic wildfire as a threat to the survival of the species, and (4)
where bugs or disease are destroying the forest and increasing the threat
of catastrophic wildfire. It also provides improved timelines for judicial
review to ensure that court decisions about critical time-sensitive
management actions are completed quickly. Additionally, the bill would:
- help communities create a
cost-effective use for wood, brush and other plant materials removed
in forest health projects as a biomass energy fuel supply;
- authorize a program to support
community-based watershed forestry partnerships that address critical
forest stewardship, watershed protection and restoration needs at the
state and local level;
- direct additional research focused
on the early detection and containment of insect and disease
infestations; and
- establish a private forestland
easement program focused on recovering forest ecosystem types and
protecting valuable wildlife habitat.
To download maps of the wildland fire outlook for 2003, insect
infestation nationwide, and charts of fuel treatments by fiscal year,
visit www.fs.fed.us.
(back to
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2003)
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