Wildfire mitigation bill passes U.S. House

The House passed H.R. 8790, the “Fix Our Forests Act,” which intends to reduce the risk of wildfires and promote forest health. Projects proposed to thin overgrown forests of fuel through timber harvesting and prescribed burns often suffer permitting delays under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The bill would set “firm timelines and statutes of limitations for NEPA litigation against these activities.” It would also designate fireshed management areas and create an interagency office to coordinate mitigation efforts. The bill also adds and expands the activities eligible under NEPA for “categorical exclusions,” types of projects recognized to not pose significant impacts, to include vegetation management and maintenance on transmission lines.

Healthy forests are crucial in providing wildlife habitat, air and water purification, climate regulation, and bring recreational and economic benefits to users. When fuel accumulates in forests, wildfires burn hotter for longer and are more likely to endanger housing and structures.

The National Forest System and the Bureau of Land Management are responsible for wide swaths of federal forest lands. Once the Forest Service initiates an environmental review, it takes “an average of 3.6 years to begin mechanical treatments and 4.7 years to begin a prescribed burn.” For projects subject to more stringent review, “the time from initiation to implementation averages 5.3 years for mechanical treatments and 7.2 years for prescribed burns.”

Thanks to delays, wildfire mitigation activities come too late. “Indeed, reports from the Bootleg Fire [in Oregon] suggested that an area where scheduled prescribed burns had been delayed suffered more damage than areas where treatments had been completed.”

It is laudable to expedite wildfire mitigation activities, and there’s hope that speeding these activities will reduce the catastrophic harms of wildfires in the West. However, there would be more benefit to lifting the burden that NEPA poses to all projects that may have an environmental impact.