The House Natural Resources Committee will focus this week on a Republican bill to more quickly thin forests deemed in danger of wildfire.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, the chair of the committee, has proposed draft legislation to create federal “firesheds,” or areas the Forest Service has determined are at the highest risk of fire, and to expedite projects to remove overgrowth and dead or dying trees. The Subcommittee on Federal Lands, chaired by Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), is scheduled to take testimony on it.
The draft bill calls for categorical exclusions from the National Environmental Policy Act to designate emergency firesheds every five years, beginning with areas already highlighted in the Biden administration’s 10-year wildfire strategy. More areas would be listed every five years, with projects not subject to environmental assessments or environmental impact statements.
The draft also would provide for such exclusions along electric power rights of way, responding to the danger of fires started by downed power lines.
