A bipartisan coalition of members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would expand the authority of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 beyond the wildland-urban interface. The new bill, named the Healthy Forests Restoration Amendments Act of 2009 (H. R. 4233), would allow thinning farther away from communities than the original 1.5-mile radius. One of the effects would be increased logging in more remote areas.
HERE is a link to a 4-minute video in which Rep. Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) makes an announcement about the bill.
Below, is an excerpt from an AP article:
=========
The bill would amend the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which never fulfilled its promise of jump-starting thinning projects on federal lands and around communities, to expand the areas where the Forest Service could use a streamlined environmental review process.
Andy Stahl of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, a conservation group, said the thinning bill contained a “Trojan Horse” designed to allow more commercial logging in the name of reducing fire danger on national forests.
By inserting the words “Necessary connected action” into a section of the original bill, the amendment would open the door to streamlined environmental reviews of timber sales connected to thinning projects, Stahl said.
“The only way hazardous fuel reduction projects pay their way out the woods is if you sell commercial timber with them,” Stahl said. “So it’s necessary to have a commercial timber sale to reduce hazardous fuels.
“But a commercial timber sale under the current law doesn’t fit the Healthy Forests Restoration Act criteria. This amendment would do so.”
The bills drew support from Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. He said they would make it more certain where the Forest Service can conduct large thinning projects without having to go through major environmental reviews, and help build a market for thinning materials that currently have little value.
Co-sponsors were Reps. Brian Baird, D-Wash.; Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Schrader, and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.
