HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 22
INTRODUCED BY A. CURTISS, BALES, BARRETT, DEVLIN, MASOLO, OLSON
A JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MONTANA URGING THE REDUCTION OF AN OVERABUNDANCE OF FOREST FUELS.
WHEREAS, the United States Forest Service was first organized to protect the national forests from fire and to provide a sustainable supply of timber, water, goods, and services for the people of the United States; and
WHEREAS, citizens of Montana and communities throughout the western United States still depend on the prudent stewardship, the sustained utilization of resources, and the steady production of goods and services from the multiple use management of public lands in those western states; and
WHEREAS, the April 1999 U.S. General Accounting Office report, "Western National Forests, a Cohesive Strategy is Needed to Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats" states, "the most extensive and serious problem related to the health of national forests in the interior West is the overaccumulation of vegetation, which has caused an increasing number of large, intense, uncontrollable, and catastrophically destructive wildfires"; and
WHEREAS, the April 2000 U.S. Forest Service report, "Protecting People and Sustaining Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosystems: A Cohesive Strategy" in response to the General Accounting Office report, confirmed the conclusion stated above and further warns "Without increased restoration treatments in these ecosystems wildland fire suppression costs, natural resource losses, private property losses, and environmental damage are certain to escalate as fuels continue to accumulate and more acres become high-risk.", and the report also specifies that, at a low intensity, fire is ecologically beneficial and has positive effects on biodiversity, soil productivity, and water quality; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Forest Service further acknowledges that 39 million acres of national forest are at significant risk of catastrophic wildfire and an additional 26 million acres will be at similar risk due to increases in the mortality of trees and brush caused by insects and disease; and
WHEREAS, catastrophic wildfires, such as those in California in 1993, Florida in 1998, and Montana and Idaho in 2000, are recognized as among the defining natural disasters of the past decade; and
WHEREAS, the conflagrations that engulfed hundreds of thousands of acres in Montana during 2000 caused millions of dollars of damage to the property of residents; and
WHEREAS, catastrophic wildfires not only cause damage to the forests and other lands, but place the lives of firefighters at risk and pose threats to human health, personal property, sustainable ecosystems, air quality, and water quality; and
WHEREAS, the escaped Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire in May, 2000, which consumed 48,000 acres and destroyed 400 homes with losses exceeding $1 billion in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the escaped Lowden Prescribed Fire in 1999 that destroyed 23 homes in Lewiston, California, highlight the unacceptable risks of using prescribed burning if prescribed burning, as reported, was the sole forest management practice of the subject federal land management agencies; and
WHEREAS, high-risk forest fuel has accumulated in combination with reduced fire response capability by federal agencies during the 1990s, resulting in catastrophic wildfires becoming more difficult and expensive to extinguish with a disproportionate burden being placed on state and local resources, the costs to fight these fires has increased by 150% between 1986 and 1994, and the costs of maintaining a readiness force has increased by 70% between 1992 and 1997; and
WHEREAS, current planning efforts of the U.S. Forest Service, such as the Sierra Nevada Framework, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project, the Roadless Initiative, and the federal monument proclamations rely primarily on the extensive use of prescribed fire, which will further exacerbate the risk of catastrophic wildfires on federal lands throughout the West.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:
(1) That in the interest of protecting the integrity and posterity of Montana's forests, wild lands, wildlife habitat, watersheds, air quality, human health and safety, and private property, the U.S. Forest Service and other federal land management agencies are urged to immediately implement a cohesive strategy to reduce the overabundance of forest fuels that place these resources at high risk of catastrophic wildfire.
(2) That the agencies are urged to utilize an appropriate mix of fire suppression activities and forest management methodologies, including selective thinning, selective harvesting, grazing, the removal of excessive ground fuels, small-scale prescribed burns, and the increased use of private, local, and state contracts for prefire treatments on federal forest lands.
(3) That the Legislature urges that more effective fire suppression in federal forest lands be pursued through increased funding of mutual aid agreements with state and local public firefighting agencies.
(4) That in the interest of forest protection and rural community safety, the federal Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior are urged to immediately draft, for public review and adoption, a national prescribed fire strategy for public lands that creates a process for the evaluation of worst case scenarios that present a risk of escaped prescribed fires and identifies alternatives that will achieve the land management objectives while minimizing the risk and use of prescribed fire, and that this strategy be incorporated into any regulatory land use planning program that proposes the use of prescribed fire as a management practice.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Secretary of State send copies of this resolution to President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, the Governors of Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, Montana's Congressional Delegation, the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, the Director of the U.S. Park Service, and the Director of the Bureau of Land Management.
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