Deal Struck On Healthy Forests, Senate to Appoint Conferees

Washington , DC – House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) announced today that a compromise has been reached in bi-cameral negotiations on the most contentious provisions of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. As a result, the Senate will appoint conferees and meet the House in an official conference to finish work on the bill.
“We have light at the end of the tunnel,” Chairman Pombo said. “This bipartisan agreement puts the Healthy Forests legislation within reach of the White House. In fact, when the Senate appoints its conferees, I am confident that we can move this bill from the conference-committee table to the President’s desk very quickly.”
“I want the thinning and fuels reduction projects authorized in the Healthy Forests bill to start as soon as humanly possible,” Pombo continued. “The sooner those start, the more we can do to protect our communities, our environment, and our firefighters from the threat of catastrophic fires.”
“I also want to thank the authors of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, Representatives Scott McInnis of Colorado and Greg Walden of Oregon , for their perseverance and dedication to achieving forest management reform. Without their hard work over the last several years, I can honestly say, we would not be so close to seeing this bill become law.”
Specifically, the House-Senate agreement:

ü Revamps the Forest Service’s conflict-ridden administrative appeals process, requiring would-be appellants to participate early in the development stages of a forest restoration project in order to reserve the right to file an appeal. This provision is virtually identical to the House-passed language.

ü Creates an historic paradigm shift in the way Court’s consider legal challenges to hazardous fuels reduction projects, mandating that the Courts weigh the environmental consequences of management inaction when the specter of catastrophic wildfire looms. It would also require that federal judges reconsider any injunctions to projects every 60 days.

ü Expedites analysis and review requirements for priority wildfire mitigation projects, applying House-passed environmental analysis requirements to projects focused on protecting communities, and Senate passed analysis procedures to projects focused on protecting watersheds and endangered wildlife. Finally, Senate-passed old growth language was restructured to eliminate significant litigation loopholes. Also, requirements related to the retention of certain large trees were clarified ensuring that the bill’s wildfire mitigation purposes were not trumped by these new standards.

ü Ensures that the public has a full and thorough opportunity to participate in the decision making process. It embraces the House-passed, bipartisan Western Governor Association 10-Year Strategy’s robust public input and participation requirements, ensuring that interested persons will have numerous opportunities to engage decision makers during all phases of a project’s development and implementation.