The new chair of the Congressional Western Caucus is renewing Republican lawmakers’ push to make national forests easier to thin against wildfire and other dangers.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) proposed legislation to expand categorical exclusions from environmental reviews, and to boost the Agriculture Department’s use of timber sales to encourage more removal of trees in certain situations.
The bill is called the “Targeted Operations to Remove Catastrophic Hazards (TORCH) Act,” although it emphasizes cutting and selling of trees as a management practice, rather than prescribed fire.
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“We can’t wait for the next fire to come. This bill will allow us to act now, at a larger scale, and in a smarter way,” LaMalfa said in a news release.
