USDA AND DOI DELIVER LEGISLATION TO IMPLEMENT PRESIDENT'S
HEALTHY FORESTS INITIATIVE

 WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2002--Just two weeks after President Bush called on the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to expedite federal and local efforts to restore forest health through active land-management efforts, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman and Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton today delivered to Congress a legislative proposal that would implement key elements of the President's Healthy Forests Initiative.

"Today marks the next step in meeting the President's call to restore the health of our forests and rangelands and to protect people that live in and around these areas," said Veneman. "This legislative proposal would give us management tools we desperately need to help get our forests and communities out of the crisis they are in. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress in a bipartisan effort to enact this important legislation."

Through the Healthy Forests Initiative, President Bush directed the two departments to 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. Secretaries Veneman and Norton delivered the four-part proposal to Congress while testifying before the House Committee on Resources on fire-related topics, including the President's initiative.

The first piece of the proposal would expedite the reduction of hazardous fuels that pose the greatest risk to people, communities and the environment. These critical areas include community water supplies, the wildland-urban interface and areas affected by forest disease and insect infestations. Projects to reduce fuels in these areas would be selected through collaborative processes consistent with the 10-year Comprehensive Strategy and Implementation Plan (http://www.fireplan.gov/10yrIPfinal.cfm).

"The collaborative process in the 10-year plan will involve citizens upfront in the projects," said Norton. "The plan sets forth the blueprint for making communities and the environment safer with active forest management. Projects will be selected through consulting all stakeholders at the local level."

The next piece of the legislation would authorize the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to enter into long-term stewardship contracts with the private sector, nonprofit organizations and local communities. Stewardship contracts retain contractors to provide valuable services, thinning trees and brush and removing dead wood. Long-term contracts provide contractors the incentive to invest in equipment and infrastructure needed to productively use material incidentally generated from forest thinning to make wood products, such as particle board, or to produce energy.

The third proposal would repeal the Appeals Reform Act that was a rider to the fiscal year 1993 Interior Appropriations Bill, which imposes extraordinary procedural requirements on the Forest Service when administrative appeals are made on forest projects. The proposal would still allow an individual to appeal a forest decision.

The fourth proposal would establish common-sense rules for courts when deciding on challenges to fuels-reduction projects designed to restore fire-adapted forest and rangeland ecosystems. It would ensure that judges consider long-term risks of harm to people, property and the environment in court challenges based on alleged short-term risks of forest health projects.

The departments are also working on a fifth legislative piece, addressing the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan's original promise of a sustainable habitat and forest economy, which will be sent to Congress later. In addition, the departments are working with the Council for Environmental Quality to develop draft regulations and policy guidance to reduce the time and cost of planning and improving collaboration with local governments on hazardous fuels reduction projects.

On August 22, the President announced the Healthy Forests Initiative to reduce catastrophic wildfire threats to communities and the environment and to implement core components of the National Fire Plan's 10-year Comprehensive Strategy and Implementation Plan, which is a bipartisan plan signed by 17 Western Governors and the Administration. For more information on about the President's Healthy Forests Initiative, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/healthyforests/, http://www.usda.gov/ and http://www.doi.gov/.