 |
|
Walden, Craig to map different routes to same goal
DAN BERMAN, E&E DAILY, 01/26/06
The respective leaders of the House and Senate forestry subcommittees both plan to push proposals that would accelerate the Forest Service's ability to carry out its job this year, but they have different visions of how to accomplish that goal.
House Forests Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee Chairman Larry Craig (R-Idaho) laid out their agenda for the upcoming session in separate interviews with E&E Daily yesterday.
The relatively short legislative year due to the midterm elections may limit Congress' ability to pass major public lands bills, but likely will not prevent Walden from continuing to push his bill to accelerate post-wildfire timber harvests and restoration in national forests. Across the Hill, Craig said he will continue to push for action he says is needed to address a court ruling last year that has slowed the Forest Service's ability to conduct thinning projects under Healthy Forests.
'Sooner rather than later' on forest recovery, salvage
Introduced last fall, H.R. 4200 from Walden and cosponsor Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) has drawn significant opposition from environmentalists who say it is an excuse to promote salvage logging on national forests.
"I know the opponents of the bill want to say it's a chainsaw massacre," Walden said, contending that H.R. 4200 does not mandate salvage logging as the primary course or action.
"The amazing part of the debate over this bill is the perception it says 'Go cut every tree that's out there,'" Walden said. "It says nothing like that -- it says to implement the plan that's out there."
H.R. 4200 would give the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management 30 days to evaluate and recommend any restoration work following catastrophic wildfires or storms that affect more than 1,000 acres. Damage to between 250 and 1,000 acres would be evaluated at the agencies' discretion. Following the review period, the Forest Service or BLM would propose emergency restoration and reforestation projects.
Walden called for the House Resources and Agriculture committees to mark up the bill "sooner rather than later." Staffers are working on about 20 technical changes to the bill, Walden said, incorporating comment from the Bush administration, University of Washington professor Jerry Franklin and others who testified at a hearing in November.
But the Agriculture Committee is beginning hearings on the 2007 farm bill, so it may not have the time or inclination to further address H.R. 4200. A committee spokeswoman said if the Resources Committee marked up and reported the bill to the full House, the Agriculture panel could simply discharge it, but that option is not being considered at the present time.
Walden also brushed aside calls for another hearing on the bill, to address a new controversial study of salvage logging conducted by the Forest Service after the 2002 Biscuit Fire in Oregon. The study by an Oregon State University graduate student published in Science earlier this month found salvage logging there destroyed nearly three-fourths of seedlings that had regenerated naturally and increased the risk of future wildfires. The report, which received widespread positive media coverage after its release, implies that forests are better off without intervention from forest managers, either for salvage logging or replanting (E&E Daily, Jan. 10).
"There wasn't anything new in that report," Walden said, noting the Forest Service was forced to wait two years before beginning salvage operations. "My opinion is you need to look at a broader timeframe than a couple of years ... and what happened if you get in right away as our bill envisions."
Walden also cited a "little noticed and less written about section" of H.R. 4200 that would fund additional research on post-catastrophic forest recovery. "Scientists are going to debate and disagree," he said. "We as policymakers need to make a decision."
Steve Holmer of the United Forest Defense Campaign said Walden is purposely avoiding another confrontation on the salvage issue. "It doesn't really surprise me that Rep. Walden doesn't want to look into the science because the science clearly does not support his bill," Holmer said.
In the Senate, Craig said his panel would likely hold a hearing on Sen. Gordon Smith 's (R-Ore.) companion bill, S. 2079, but he did not say whether he expects the Senate to act on it. Similar to H.R. 4200, S. 2079 includes language encouraging the use of mediation to avoid litigation and sets hard deadlines for Section 7 consultations required under the Endangered Species Act.
Oversight of Forest Service, categorical exclusions
Both Craig and Walden plan oversight hearings of the Forest Service and progress being made under the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Yet Craig says action is necessary to address a court ruling last year that has slowed the Forest Service's ability to conduct thinning projects under Healthy Forests.
"[Healthy Forests] was working very well until we ran afoul of a judge and his opinion of categorical exclusions," Craig said. "It's tied one hand behind the Forest Service's back."
Three times last year, Judge James Singleton of the U.S. District Court in Alaska ruled the Forest Service violated the 1992 Appeals Reform Act by failing to allow comment and appeals on projects categorically excluded from additional study under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Forest Service's initial response sparked a firestorm of protest, with environmentalists and several members of Congress accusing the agency of attempting to manufacture a crisis.
The Earth Island Institute v. Ruthenbeck rulings do not disallow categorical exclusions, but they have caused considerable consternation in the Forest Service, where officials say the ruling will simply force foresters to conduct an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement that costs more and takes longer than using categorical exclusions.
Craig did not say how he would address Singleton's ruling, though he suggested one of the post-wildfire bills could be a good vehicle. Last fall, Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) floated legislation (H.R. 4091) intended to clarify that projects conducted under categorical exemptions are not subject to administrative appeals.
"Some people who think doing nothing is by far the better proposition have to be forced to the table to look at it, and I'm willing to do that," Craig said.
Also on the oversight agenda in the House panel is a review of the Tribal Forests Protection Act passed by Congress last year, examination of the use of woody biomass, and addressing issues with increasing recreation on national forests. Walden added he intends to introduce legislation designed to address grazing and rangeland issues in national forests and BLM lands, but declined to go into specifics.
Craig is planning an oversight hearing on fire preparedness, citing the fires in Oklahoma, Texas and dangerous conditions in the Southwest. In addition, the issue of the Forest Service's heavy aerial firefighting fleet, at one point grounded due to safety concerns, will also be addressed.
Forest county payments reauthorization
A priority of both chairmen is securing reauthorization of the 2000 law that has seen over $1.5 billion distributed to states and counties affected by reduced timber sales on national forests.
The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act is scheduled to expire next year, and Bush administration officials have said they would support reauthorization if Congress agrees to fully offset the cost. A Walden bill to reauthorize the program (H.R. 517) passed the House Resources Committee last year, and Craig and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have introduced companion legislation (S. 267) in the Senate.
Traditionally, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management paid counties 25 percent of forest product revenues from federal lands. But when timber sales, the main contributor to the funds, began declining in the 1980s, counties lost money that go toward schools, roads and other services.
Aside from the money, the law has been praised by many in the West for the establishment of resource advisory committees (RACs), panels comprised of stakeholder groups that recommend a wide variety of environmental restoration projects with a portion of the proceeds from the federal payments. Overall, 56 RACs nationwide have recommended over 1,800 projects costing over $100 million.
"It has developed substantial value and the clear recognition the collaborative process that has brought the environmentalists and forest products industry together on the ground to work for the health of the forest and health of the community has gone a long way," Craig said.
Another look at revising mining law?
Meanwhile, Craig said he would take another look at legislation proposed to revise the 1872 mining law that caused a major uproar when it was attached to the House budget reconciliation bill late last year.
"The Senate and subcommittee and all the interested parties had not had an opportunity to look at it," Craig said, noting he opposed "provisions I don't think in the broad sense were acceptable to mining law reform and allowing the industry to get to the resources." Action is necessary for the sake of the nation's economy and security, Craig said. "The mining industry in our nation is where the oil industry was 20 years ago before it left altogether and went offshore."
The proposal by Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.), centered around repealing the decade-old moratorium on patenting public lands, would have allowed mining companies to buy the lands where they stake claims. It faced fierce opposition from hunting, fishing and environmental groups, and some Western governors and senators who said it could lead to a "fire sale" of public land (Greenwire, Dec. 14).
"The House has acted, it gives us the chance to sit down with them and work out our differences," Craig said. "We can try and be nimble over here and get it done."
| |
|
|
|
|
|
