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Today, Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) joined with other members of the House Natural Resources Committee in supporting passage of H.R. 1526, the “Restoring Healthy Forest for Healthy Communities Act” by a voice vote. This legislation renews the federal government’s commitment to manage federal forests for the benefit of rural schools and counties, improves forest health, and helps prevent catastrophic wildfires by allowing greater state and local involvement in wildfire prevention on federal lands. 

Last year, 9.3 million acres burned due to forest fires. This was the third worst fire season on record for acres burned and included the Waldo Canyon Fire. Meanwhile only 200,000 acres were managed through harvesting last year by the U.S. Forest Service. This means that 44 times as many acres burned as were responsibly harvested and restored. This resulted in lower revenue generation and increased costs to local, state, and federal governments. The Forest Service once averaged over $1 billion in revenues annually. However due to mismanagement, it now spends $2 for every $1 it produces and spends half of its appropriated budget on wildfire suppression – averaging $2.5 billion over the last five years.

“The lack of common sense management to remove excess growth means our forests are increasingly susceptible to catastrophic wildfires that threaten public safety, the economic livelihood of communities, the local water supply, and forest health. This legislation will correct this by directing the Secretary of Agriculture to implement hazardous fuels reduction and forest health projects on at-risk lands and high-risk areas designated by the governor of a state.  It also allows states to propose forest health projects to the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management for implementation.”-- Doug Lamborn (CO-05)

Specifically, H.R. 1526 would

• reestablish the priority of actively managing our forests and promotes responsible timber production on Forest Service commercial timber land;
• improve forest health and prevent catastrophic wildfires by allowing great state and local involvement;
• improve forest management by allowing counties to actively manage portions of National Forest land;
• addresses the forest lands currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Western Oregon, known as “O&C Lands;”
• and allows for a short-term extension of Secure Rural Schools payments as counties transition back to active forest management.