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U.S. House of Representatives,
Natural Resources Committee, Chairman Doc Hastings
All Witnesses Agree: Litigation, Red Tape Fuel
Megafires that Damage Forests, Communities, &
Species
7/24/12
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
Today, the House Natural Resources Committee held an
oversight hearing on, “The Impact of
Catastrophic Forest Fires and Litigation on People
and Endangered Species: Time for Rational Management
of our Nation's Forests.” The hearing focused on
the devastating impacts of catastrophic wildfires on
people and species and how Endangered Species Act
litigation blocks activities that help prevent and
fight fires.
“Information provided by the Justice Department to
this Committee reveals that at least 59
environmental lawsuits against the Forest Service
and BLM have been filed or are open during just the
past four years. These suits have stopped most human
or economic activity connected with forests,
including eliminating thousands of jobs. They have
also obstructed projects to improve species habitat
on thousands of acres decimated by fires, by
removing dead or diseased trees, maintaining access
roads to fire areas, and removing ash and sediment.
Ironically, some of these lawsuits aimed at ‘saving’
forests have resulted in their actual destruction,
where once old-growth, critical habitat forests now
resemble the moon’s surface after fires,”
said Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04).
“Our communities and endangered species deserve
practical solutions now to address and reduce
the risks of megafires. We owe it to them to improve
federal forest health and species habitat and ensure
that the Endangered Species Act works to protect
species and people before and after these
devastating fires occur.”
José Varela López, President-Elect of the New
Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association,
testified regarding obstacles Endangered Species Act
related litigation creates that prevents proper
forest management and significantly increases the
time and resources necessary to suppress megafires.
“[T]he expense incurred to mitigate the immediate
damage caused by the wildfires that decimate our
fuel laden forests is many times more expensive than
prudent, diligent forest management ever could be,”
said López. “Additionally, proper and
proactive forest management also provides jobs to
rural communities, produces timber for homes and
business, biomass for renewable energy, protects
homes and other infrastructure, improves habitat for
endangered species and other wildlife, increases
forage production for livestock, and most
importantly maintains or improves intact watersheds
to deliver much needed water to our irrigated
fields, municipalities and waterways.”
Environmental laws such as the Endangered Species
Act have been used as a tool by third parties to
effectively block proper forest management and fire
suppression activities.
Rick Dice, President of the National Wildfire
Suppression Association, representing 250
private fire contractors nationwide, and CEO of
PatRick Environmental, a company that provides fire
resources to multiple federal and state agencies for
wildland fire suppression and other emergency
efforts, discussed the obstacles firefighting crews
face when trying to either prevent or suppress
catastrophic wildfire. “The Endangered Species
Act, Federal Land Policy Management Act, and the
National Environmental Policy Act individually
provide important environmental safeguards.
Collectively they overlap in contradictory ways that
make it nearly impossible for the federal land
managers, local elected officials, partnership
groups, and private companies to navigate through
the paperwork related to the laws.” Throughout
his forty years in the firefighting business, Mr.
Dice has observed a fundamental shift in federal
land management. Rather than relying on proactive
measures to prevent wildfire and promote forest
health, land managers are forced to react to
wildfires already in progress. “We once worked in
the woods to proactively prevent and or reduce
damage from wildfires, now we only react to these
larger catastrophic wildland fires after the
ignition occurs,” stated Dice.
Wyoming State Forester and Chair-elect of the
Council of Western State Foresters
Bill Crapser
spoke of the barriers faced by states to achieve
active forest management due to “complex process
requirements of federal laws, rules and policies”
including the Endangered Species Act, which
discourages private landowners as well as states.
“Arguably, laws such as the ESA have placed too much
focus on single species versus a comprehensive
approach to resource management that looks at the
full suite of ecological, economic and social issues
and opportunities,” he said. “The use of the
regulatory hammer causes confrontation with private
forest landowners and...positive, voluntary
incentives for landowners to manage their lands to
provide habitat for threatened and endangered
species would be more productive.” According to
Crapser, “The nation’s forests will continually
be subject to an increasing threat of wildland fire
until barriers to active management are removed.”
When
questioned by Chairman Hastings, Alison Berry, an
Energy & Economics expert at The Sonoran Institute,
acknowledged the need for federal reform of
forest fire policy in order to reduce the risks of
megafires. She also asserted that active forest
management is necessary to prevent catastrophic
wildfire. In fact, in a 2009 report on forest
management, Ms. Berry wrote, “The sources of the
problems facing the Lolo and the Forest Service
nationwide are many: never ending appeals and
litigation drawing resources away from on-the-ground
management, inherent flaws in large bureaucratic
organizations relying on top-down planning,
political interference, regulatory congestion,
unstable funding streams, and so-on.” In the
report, Ms. Berry went on to recommend that the
Forest Service, “Overhaul the public land laws
that are dragging down federal land management.
Reform should be directed at making national forests
less vulnerable to seemingly endless litigation.”
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