Bush promises record funds while House passes initiative

The Bush administration is responding to the national wildland fire challenge by proposing record levels of funding for firefighting, hiring additional firefighters, purchasing additional equipment, accomplishing record levels of fuels treatment and advancing its Healthy Forests Initiative, the White House announced.

The administration has worked on a bipartisan basis to increase the resources available for firefighting and fire preventive fuels treatment work. This effort has resulted in a 55% increase in federal dollars since 2000. These additional dollars have resulted in more firefighting resources being available, as compared to three years ago:

Resource	FY 2000	FY 2003
Firefighters	12,131	15,330
Type I crews	68	90
Engines	2,197	2,581
Dozers, plows and tenders	286	335
Air tankers	64	72
Helicopters	119	151

This year, firefighting crews and equipment will be pre-positioned as needed in states to provide effective initial wildfire attack. Additional helicopters and single-engine airtankers will be used to replace the large, multi-engine air tankers that have been grounded for safety reasons.

In addition, last year more than 2.25 million acres received fuels treatment, a million acres more than were treated in FY 2000. By the end of FY 2003, 2.85 million additional acres are projected to be treated. So far this year, 1.4 million acres have been treated, 133,000 acres more than had been treated at this time last year and 531,000 acres more than had been treated in 2001.

Over the next several weeks, the administration will complete the reforms President George W. Bush called for as part of his Healthy Forests Initiative, including:

• Establishing new procedures provided for under the National Environmental Policy Act that will enable priority fuels treatment (thinning) and forest restoration (reseeding and planting) projects to proceed quickly. Fuels treatment projects under this procedure must be identified by federal agency experts working in collaboration with state, local and tribal governments and interested persons.
• Amending the agencies' administrative appeal rules to expedite appeals of forest health projects and encourage early and more meaningful public participation. These improvements will reduce complex procedures, provide more timely decisions and offer flexibility in emergency situations.
• Expediting consultation by federal agencies on the effects that fuels treatment projects may have on endangered species.
• Implementing the Council on Environmental Quality guidance to establish an improved and focused process for conducting environmental assessments. Fifteen pilot fuels treatment projects using the guidance are expected to be completed this summer.

On the legislative front, last year Bush asked Congress to expand stewardship contracting authority, which Congress granted. These contracts allow contractors to keep wood products in exchange for the service of thinning trees and brush and removing dead wood.

Long-term contracts foster a public/private partnership to restore forest and rangeland health by giving contractors the incentive to invest in equipment and infrastructure needed to productively use material generated from forest thinning, such as small-diameter logs, and to make wood products or to produce biomass energy, all at tremendous savings to taxpayers.

Contracts for 62 stewardships are projected to be approved this year, up from last year's total of 26. Substantially more stewardship contracts are expected to be approved in FY 2004.

In other legislative news, the House of Representatives in May passed H.R. 1904, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. The legislation would provide additional tools for land managers to help them protect lives and communities, to restore the health of forests and rangelands, and to safeguard important wildlife habitat and watersheds.

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act establishes procedures to expedite forest and rangeland restoration projects on Forest Service and BLM lands. It focuses on lands:

• Near communities in the wildland-urban interface,
• In high-risk municipal watersheds that provide important habitat for threatened and endangered species,
• Where wildlife officials have identified catastrophic wildfire as a threat to the survival of the species, and
• Where insects or disease are destroying the forest and increasing the threat of catastrophic wildfire.

It also provides improved timelines for judicial review to ensure that court decisions about critical time-sensitive management actions are completed quickly. Additionally, the bill would:

• Help communities create a cost-effective use for wood, brush and other plant materials removed in forest health projects as a biomass energy fuel supply;
• Authorize support to community-based watershed forestry partnerships that address critical forest stewardship, watershed protection and restoration needs;
• Direct additional research focused on the early detection and containment of insect and disease infestations; and
• Establish a private forestland easement program focused on recovering forest ecosystem types and protecting valuable wildlife habitat.

The act ensures continued public input in projects on federal lands and still requires federal agencies to comply with all environmental laws. The act will allow for more efficient and integrated planning for forest health projects, enabling land managers to work across boundaries.

To download maps of the wildland fire outlook for 2003, insect infestation nationwide and charts of fuel treatments by fiscal year, visit www.fs.fed.us.

Program	FY 2000	FY 2003	FY 2004
Wildland fire preparedness	$547,617	$887,408	$892,472
Fire suppression operations	197,256	577,273	799,890
Hazardous fuel reduction	117,040	412,253	417,582
Rehabilitation and restoration	20,000	26,948	24,500
Fire facilities	0	1,838	0
Research and development	0	21,288	21,427
Joint fire sciences	0	7,948	8,000
Forest health management	0	16,824	11,934
Economic action program	0	4,967	0
State fire assistance	23,929	71,738	71,840
Volunteer/rural fire assistance	3,240	23,128	23,283
Emergency suppression contingency	390,000	0	0
TOTAL	$1,326,088	$2,051,613	$2,270,928
FY 2000 and 2003 are enacted levels; FY 2004 is the president's requested funding.