President Bush Announces Initiative to Restore
Forest Health and Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires

MEDFORD, Ore, Aug. 22, 2002--President Bush today announced an initiative to restore forest and rangeland health and prevent catastrophic wildfires on public lands. The Healthy Forests Initiative will expedite federal and local efforts to restore forest health through active land management efforts such as thinning of small trees and brush, and, where appropriate, prescribed burns.

President Bush is directing Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, and Council of Environmental Quality Chairman James L. Connaughton to develop more effective and timely procedures for reducing the hazardous accumulation of fuels that are responsible for severe wildfires.

"While we have accomplished a great deal in addressing forest health issues, the President's initiative will enable federal, state and local governments to move ahead much more quickly on the critical mission of reducing the buildup of excess fuel on public lands," said Veneman. "This initiative is the right plan for a critical time in forest health management."

The 2002 fire season is already one of the worst in American history, and may break all records. Six million acres of public and private lands have burned this year, with more than a month of fire season remaining.

These fires have burned with extraordinary intensity, making them difficult to control and causing tremendous environmental damage. Hundreds of millions of trees have been destroyed by this summer's fires, as well as hundreds of thousands of acres of endangered species habitat, and thousands of homes and structures. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from communities all across the West. Land managers must act now to more quickly address the deterioration of forest and rangeland health that causes these severe fires.

"This fundamental change in management approach sends a message that Americans need to hear about reducing the risk of wildfires," Norton said. "The initiative sets forth priorities that will remove obstacles to creating healthy forests and reducing risks of extreme fires."

These catastrophic wildfires are caused by a century of fire suppression and insufficient forest thinning activities, which has allowed our forests to grow much more densely than is natural. For instance, 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. Drought conditions coupled with years of fuel buildup from fire suppression and reduced thinning make these lands vulnerable to intense and environmentally destructive fires.

Federal land management agencies are working hard to reduce this buildup of fuels, and are expected to reduce fire hazards on as many as 2.5 million acres of land this year by carrying out fuels treatment projects such as forest thinning, but in many instances this vital work is being slowed or stopped by procedural delays and litigation. Projects that have been delayed by this work would have reduced the impact of this summer's fires, and

might have prevented some of the fires from growing out of control. With 190 million acres of public land - an area twice the size of California - at high risk for severe wildfires, timely action to reduce the threat of catastrophic fires is essential.

Through the Healthy Forests Initiative, the Administration will work with Congress to streamline unnecessary, burdensome red tape that prevents timely and effective implementation of wildfire prevention and forest health projects on public lands. Delays of these projects can have devastating environmental and social consequences when catastrophic fires strike.

The Healthy Forests Initiative will implement core components of the National Fire Plan's 10- year Comprehensive Strategy and Implementation Plan. This historic plan, which was adopted this spring by Secretaries Norton and Veneman and 17 western governors, in collaboration with county commissioners, state foresters, and tribal officials, calls for more active forest and rangeland management. It establishes a framework for protecting communities and the environment through local collaboration on thinning, planned burns and forest restoration projects.

To help meet the objectives of the 10-Year Plan, the Healthy Forests Initiative will establish a process for concurrent project review by federal agencies, and develop guidance for consistent application of National Environmental Policy Act procedures.

Veneman, Norton and Connaughton will develop draft regulations and policy guidance to reduce the time and cost of planning and improving collaboration with local governments on wildland hazardous fuels reduction projects.

Under the Healthy Forest Initiative, federal agencies will also:

�    Work with Congress to enact legislation that ensures that the courts give appropriate weight to the  
      long-term benefits of fuels treatment versus other short-term risks and removes a legislative rider that
      imposed extraordinary procedural requirements for Forest Service appeals.

�    Work with Congress to enact legislation that will strengthen Interior and Agriculture's efforts to fulfill
      the original promise of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which was designed to protect wildlife habitat
      and recreational areas, while employing more than 100,000 people through sustainable timber 
      harvesting in a small portion of the forests.

For more information on about the President's Healthy Forest Initiative visit the following web sites:

http://www.whitehouse.gov
http://www.usda.gov
http://www.doi.gov

Updates on the 2002 fire season can be found at http://www.nifc.gov