Washington, D.C. – The Senate passed 97-1 a forest management amendment cosponsored by Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Pete V. Domenici that will expedite the removal of flammable dead wood and underbrush from up to 20 million acres of federal forest land surrounding towns and cities – land commonly referred to as the wildland-urban interface. While the Senate voted on the measure, wildfires continued to burn in California and Mexico. Fires in the San Bernardino Mountains have scorched more than 600,000 acres, claimed 18 lives and destroyed more than 1,800 homes. Sen. Domenici issued the following statement on the passage of his amendment: “I have been working closely for months with Agriculture Chairman Cochran and key western senators, both Republican and Democrat, to get Healthy Forest legislation through the Senate. “The passage today of an amendment I cosponsored with Senators Cochran, Wyden, Craig, Feinstein and others is a dramatic step toward protecting our federal forests from the fiercely hot and deadly fires we’ve seen in recent years. “I am proud to see this amendment pass. Right now, 190 million acres in this country are at high risk for wildfire. That’s a land mass equal to the size of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and most of Maryland. In the last five years, we have lost 24 million acres to wild fire. During those years, the Forest Service has only thinned 1.4 million acres. We have burned 17 times more forest and rangeland, in the last 5 years, than we have attempted to manage! We can’t continue in that fashion. We can’t keep losing priceless lives, thousands of homes and millions of acres season after season as we have done in the past several years. This amendment allows us to turn tragic trend around. I look forward to the day when we can point with pride to 190 million acres of green, thriving and healthy forests.” The Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 1904 does the following: * Results in a more public, expedited, process for moving hazardous fuels projects through the NEPA process. * Prioritizes treatment of up to 20 million acres in the Wildland Urban Interfaces, was well as out side the Wildland Urban Interface in the highest risk areas. * Provides for the development of a new and improved pre-decisional protest process for projects authorized under this bill. The new process will replace the highly contentious, time consuming, appeals process that currently delays many forest health projects. * Calls for court cases on hazardous fuel projects to be heard within the District they are located and encourages the courts to deal with these cases in a timely fashion. * Directs that all preliminary injunction be reviewed every 60 days, with the opportunity for the parties to update the Judges on changes in conditions so the court may respond to those changes if needed. * Reminds the Courts that when weighing the equities that they should balance the impacts to the ecosystem of the short and long-term effects of undertaking the project, against the short and long-term effects of not undertaking the project. Difference from the House-passed version of 1904: * The use of authority under this Act is restricted to only the highest risk areas. * Requires that 50% of the funds (nationally) be spend within the Wildland Urban Interface. * Emphasizes the importance of quickly dealing with insect and disease epidemics, and the salvage of wind-thrown or ice-damaged timber due to their susceptibility to insects and disease. * Increases the opportunities for up-front public input to project development by adding a process for communities to develop a community fire protection plan to help inform the federal land managers of a community’s priorities and requiring all projects to be developed through the collaborative process developed by the Western Governors group. * Creates authority for the agencies, in cooperation with state and local government, to treat community escape routes as part of the Wildland Urban Interface. * Until the community fire protection plans are completed, identifies criteria for how far from the Wildland Urban Interface the community protection projects may be undertaken. These criteria are flexible enough to take advantage of geographic features, such as ridge-tops, rivers, or roads; but restrictive enough to ensure projects undertaken in the Wildland Urban Interface will really protect the community. * Requires the Secretary to establish a new pre-decisional protest process and ensures the public will play a part in the development of the new appeals process. * Limits the use of the new appeals process to projects authorized by this Act, rather than having it apply to all Forest Service activities. * Includes, for the first time, language designed to protect old-growth and fire-resistant large trees. This protection is based on forest plans. * Where forest plans are old or outdated, requires the Secretary to complete plan revisions to address old growth and large fire resilient trees. * Narrows the scope of changes under judicial review to just those projects undertaken under the authority of this Act. * Authorizes $760 million annually for hazardous fuel reduction work, including the projects authorized under this Act, which is more than double what is currently being requested. ###