Washington, DC - A House-Senate Conference Committee today approved legislation to protect our nation's forests from catastrophic fire and provide the first national legal protection for-old growth trees. The following is a statement from Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), one of the bill's cosponsors.

"Congress today is on the verge of approving landmark legislation to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire in our forests by expediting the thinning of hazardous fuels and provide the first legal protection for old-growth forests in our nation's history. This is a good day - and shows we can break through the partisanship that all too often prevents meaningful bills from being approved.

This legislation approved by a House-Senate Conference Committee today (HR 1904) is very similar to a bill passed by the Senate last month, with priority given toward removing dead and dying trees and dangerously thick underbrush in areas nearest communities as well as targeting areas where insects have devastated forests. This is especially important in California, where hundreds of thousands of trees have been killed by the bark beetle - creating tinderbox conditions.

I am hopeful both the House and Senate will take up and approve this legislation before we adjourn and it is signed into law by President Bush by the end of the month. The bill represents a careful balancing of environmental protection with the need to protect our forests and communities from catastrophic fires.

While the recent wildfires in Southern California have been contained, these deadly fires consumed a total of 738,158 acres, killed 23 people, and destroyed approximately 3,626 residences and 1,184 other structures. Clearly, we must do everything we can to avert such a catastrophe in the future. The National Forest Service estimates that 57 million acres of federal land are at the highest risk of catastrophic fire, including 8.5 million in California, so it is critical that we protect our forests and nearby communities.

I wish to thank Senators Pete Domenici and Larry Craig and Chairman Richard Pombo of the House Resources Committee, who played critical roles in negotiating the delicate House-Senate agreement with Senator Ron Wyden and myself on this bill. I also want to thank Chairman Thad Cochran of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Chairman Bob Goodlatte of the House Agriculture Committee for their leadership throughout this process."

Protecting Our Nation's Endangered Forests

Summary

More than 57 million acres of federal land at the highest risk of catastrophic fire, including 8.5 million in California. In the past five years alone, wildfires have raged through over 27 million acres, including nearly 3 million acres in California. It is critical that Congress acts to protect our forests and nearby communities.

The House-Senate agreement both speeds up the process for reducing hazardous fuels and provides the first legal protection for old-growth trees in our nation's history. It does the following:

• Establishes an expedited process so the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior can begin a fuels reduction program to minimize the risk of wildfire - a process that will remain in effect until 20 million acres at the highest risk of catastrophic fire are treated.

• Authorizes $760 million annually for hazardous fuels reduction, a $340 million increase over current funding.

• At least 50 percent of the funds would be used for fuels reduction near communities.
  
• The remainder would go to municipal watersheds or endangered species habitat, or areas that have suffered from serious wind damage or insect infestations, such as the bark beetle.
  
  Protects old-growth forests and large trees from both logging and catastrophic fire in the following ways:

• Large trees are protected across the landscape for projects using the expedited procedures under this Act.
  
• Forest plans more than 10 years old and most in need of updating (about 60 percent of the plans) would be updated with old-growth protection within 2-3 years.
  
• While the forest-specific old-growth protections are being developed, large and fire-resilient trees are immediately protected in new projects authorized by this legislation. (i.e., the bill prevents logging of the largest, most fire-resistant trees in the guise of fuels reduction).

• Where old-growth forests have not been altered by fire suppression, existing old-growth conditions must be fully maintained.
  
• In other old-growth stands, where brush and other highly flammable fuels have accumulated through a century-old policy of suppressing ground fires, brush will be cleared out to protect the stands from catastrophic fire.
  
• Local forest managers, who know the land best, will write specific prescriptions for their forests, all consistent with the more general national old-growth protection standards in the bill.
  
• Projects under the bill cannot proceed in wilderness areas or wilderness study areas. Projects also will have to comply with existing Forest Service rules and policies concerning inventoried roadless areas. Currently most decisions concerning roadless areas must be made by the Chief of the Forest Service under the roadless policy. The roadless rule is currently under an injunction issued by a federal district court.
  
  Improves and shortens the administrative review process and makes it more collaborative and less confrontational by:
  
• Providing for public participation, including a public meeting and opportunities for comment during both the preparation of the environmental impact statement and during the administrative review process.
  
• Changing the environmental review process so the Forest Service still considers the effects of the proposed project in detail, but can focus its analysis on the project proposal, one reasonable alternative that meets the project's goals and the alternative of not doing the project, instead of the 5-9 alternatives now often required.
  
• Requires, in the wildland-urban interface, that the proposed project must still be studied in detail by the Forest Service along with one reasonable action alternative. Within 1.5 miles of an at-risk community, the Forest Service need only study the proposed action.
  
• Replacing the current Forest Service administrative appeals with an administrative review process that will occur after the Forest Service finishes its environmental review of a project, but before it reaches its decision. (This new approach is similar both to a process adopted by the Clinton Administration in 2000 for review of forest plans and plan amendments, and to the Bureau of Land Management's successful review process in place since 1984. The process will be speedier and less confrontational than the current administrative appeal process).
  
  Expedites the judicial review process without altering either its basic framework or the opportunity for fair review by:
  
• Allowing parties to sue in federal court only on issues raised in the administrative review process.
  
• Requiring lawsuits to be filed in the same jurisdiction of the proposed project.
  
• Encouraging courts to resolve the case as soon as possible.
  
• Limiting preliminary injunctions to 60 days (plaintiffs must then demonstrate every 60 days why it is appropriate for the injunction to be extended).
  
• And requiring the court to weigh the environmental benefit of doing a given project against its environmental risks, as it reviews the case.