House votes accelerated logging plan approval

             

The House approved 256-170 to accelerate tree cutting on 20 million acres of overgrown woodlands that are prone to the wildfires.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Scott McInnis (Colo.), allows the Forest Service to speed up fuel reduction projects on those acres of forests with the most severe fire risks, either because they are overgrown or because they have been infested by insects or disease.

The areas would be exempt from some of the normal environmental studies and limit the number of appeals. Judges are instructed to expedite these appeals.

The House defeated a proposal by Rep. George Miller (Calif.) that would have focused fire treatment efforts on the area within a half-mile of homes or communities on the edge of the forests and given $500 million in aid to those local communities over five years.