Bill Sacrifices Community Protection and Public Involvement, but Gives Logging Industry $125 Million for More Logging

By Matthew Koehler

Matthew Koehler is with the Missoula-based Native Forest Network. He may be reached at koehler@wildrockies.org

All the sugarcoating and spin-doctoring in the world cannot mask the fact that the so-called Healthy Forests Restoration Act – which passed the U.S. House in May and likely will come to a vote in the Senate this September – does absolutely nothing to protect homes from wildfire.

Instead, this misguided bill severely limits the ability of the American people to participate in the management of their public lands, undermines our nation’s bedrock environmental law and interferes with the U.S. court system all to increase logging on our national forests.

While the Forest Service’s own experts have found that the most effective way to protect homes from wildfire is to focus on the home and its immediate surroundings with 200 feet, this bill doesn’t give a dime to rural homeowners and cash-strapped counties and states to conduct this common-sense work.

This is incomprehensible considering the fact that while 22,000 communities across the nation are at risk from wildfire, only 12 communities – none of which are in Wyoming – are currently recognized as “firewise” by the National Fire Protection Association.

Rather, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act gives $125 million in taxpayer subsidies to the logging industry for more logging in our national forests, despite a recent Department of Agriculture report that found, “The removal of large, merchantable trees from forests does not reduce fire risk and may, in fact, increase such risk.”

That’s right: zero dollars for homeowners and communities to protect themselves from wildfire and $125 million for the logging industry for more logging in national forests. This is downright criminal.

Opposition to the Healthy Forests Restoration Act isn’t just coming from the conservation community. In recent weeks nearly a hundred state and local officials nationwide have written Congress saying that this bill does not provide them with the resources they need to protect their communities.

A commissioner from Montana’s Teton County stated, “We are in desperate need of money to protect us against wildfires. Congress should direct money to communities, not to logging projects miles away from where people live. Unfortunately, I believe this bill is little more than a ruse to boost the profits of timber companies, and not to protect communities.”

While the mayor of Roslyn, Washington noted, “With state and federal budgets strapped for cash, it is imperative that every dollar go where it is most needed and most effective: near homes and communities. Instead, this legislation needlessly guts environmental safeguards for our National Forests, and severely limits public participation in the Forest Service’s decision-making process.”

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act is not only a ruse, but it’s also based on the false premise – repeated adnauseam by the Bush Administration and GOP – that efforts to protect homes and reduce fuels are being stalled by lawsuits.

The truth of the matter is that in May the General Accounting Office – the non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress – found that of 762 Forest Service fuel reduction projects proposed over the past two years, 97% proceeded without litigation. How these numbers support claims of “analysis paralysis” is anyone’s guess.

While the conservation community is rightfully opposed to fire legislation that fails to protect homes while limiting citizen involvement in public lands management, we staunchly support giving counties and states the money they need to make sure that all communities at risk are “firewise.”

We also strongly support putting local people to work restoring the damage caused by a century of logging and over 400,000 miles of roads on our national forests. Bona-fide restoration projects such as watershed restoration, road obliteration and reducing noxious weeds will not only improve the health of our forests, but will also provide an economic boom to our rural communities.

Given that not one single community in Wyoming is “firewise” at present, it’s wrong for Wyoming’s elected officials to support a bill that gives absolutely no money to protect our homes and communities, while it gives the logging industry $125 million for more logging on national forests.