WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Pete Domenici today said he wants the Senate to soon pass legislation based on a bipartisan agreement he helped craft that will give federal land managers more freedom to undertake urgently needed forest health activities. Domenici, as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was part of a bipartisan group that worked to re-craft forest health legislation in order to garner enough votes to pass the Senate without a filibuster. The agreement will be offered as a substitute to HR.1904, as the Cochran-Domenici amendment. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee that initially approved HR.1904. Faced with the prospect of a filibuster on the bill, Domenici and Cochran teamed with Senators Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) to amend the Senate bill. “This is a fair and balanced amendment that addresses many of the concerns we have heard over the months about giving our federal land managers greater flexibility to deal with our at-risk forests,” Domenici said. “This is a compromise that represents a balanced give-and-take among all interests, and constitutes an agreement that should have broad bipartisan support in the Senate. I am urging the Senate leadership to move as quickly as possible for its passage.” The agreement continues to give the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service more leeway to plan and conduct hazardous fuels reduction projects in order to improve the protection of communities, watersheds, and other at-risk lands from catastrophic wildfire. The bill will prioritize treatment of 20 millions acres of at-risk forests. In addition, the agreement strengthens provisions dealing with local and public input, and better defines where funding will be focused—urban interface zones, municipal watersheds, areas of insect and disease-damaged forests and areas outside these urban interface zones. “Our agreement will assure that federal land managers can quickly and efficiently address areas that are being destroyed by insects, disease, or damaged by wind or ice storms, while protecting areas of old growth stands and maintaining large trees that are fire resilient,” Domenici said. “We believe this will institute a policy in which the federal government facilitates local input for dealing with these threats at the local level.” Among the provisions incorporated into the compromise agreement are: Enhancing citizens’ right to participate in the project planning process and maintaining a right to challenge proposed agency projects; Providing direction to the courts to balance the short-term risk of a project against the long-term risk to forest health through inaction; Directing half the federal forest health funding to areas immediately adjacent to wildland urban interface zones, while focusing the remaining funding in areas outside such zones; and, Allowing communities to develop community wildfire protection plans to aid in prioritizing areas to be treated under this legislation. Of specific benefit to New Mexico, Domenici incorporated a number of provisions, including: Provisions to strengthen federal actions to manage invasive nonnative shrubs and trees, such as salt cedar and Russian olive, in the bosque, forest and riparian regions; Authorizing a Federal Land Corps, akin to the Youth Conservation Corps, to allow more disadvantaged youth to participate in hazardous fuel reduction activities in the national forests; Giving priority treatment status for hazardous fuel reduction activities in and near municipal watersheds. As chairman of the Energy committee, Domenici has this year conducted hearings on reforming forest management policies, and to examine impacts of insects, disease, weather and fires on public and private forest lands. --30--