Opening Statements

Remarks as prepared:

Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing of the Conservation and Forestry subcommittee to review the 2015 fire season and long term trends.

This year, Western States, including Alaska, have experienced yet another catastrophic fire season with over 9 million acres burned to date. This continues an alarming trend where the average number of acres burned each year has nearly doubled since the 1990s. 

As such, the amount the government spends on suppressing these wildfires has also doubled, while the dollars Congress has allotted for fighting these fires have remained nearly the same. 

When fire suppression funding falls short, the financial burden falls on the Forest Service and Department of Interior to cover firefighting costs from their non-fire budgets.  These fire transfers are halting the programs and activities that promote forest health and hazardous fuels reduction, and it is impacting local forest service personnel nationwide. This year alone, over 50% of the Forest Service budget has gone towards wildfire suppression and USDA expects this figure to grow.

To many, the solution seems simple – Congress should allot more funding for fire suppression.  However, that is not necessarily the only solution.  While the budget and fire suppression funding are issues that must be addressed, we must also look at the culture of how we have been managing our National Forests.

Forest Service decisions have significant consequences, and we must make sure that policies are in place to keep our forests healthy. Healthy forests require active management – in the form of mechanical thinning, prescribed fires, and other activities – to ensure they do not become overgrown tinderboxes. Healthy national forests are more sustainable for generations to come due to decreased risk of catastrophic fires and invasive species outbreaks. Unfortunately, much of our National Forest System is unhealthy. In fact, Forest Service staff has identified up to one quarter of the 193 million acres of the National Forest System as “wildfire at risk”.

As I mentioned earlier, it is true that the number of acres burned have doubled in recent years compared to the 1990s.  However, over the same time, the number of forest fires has stayed constant or in some years even declined.

Our national forests are facing an epidemic of declining health, which is in direct correlation to policies that have led to a dramatic decrease in managed acres.  The Forest Service has drastically reduced timber harvest from almost 13 billion board feet in the late 1980’s to only 3 billion board feet of timber in recent years.

It is no wonder that the number of acres affected by catastrophic wildfire has doubled. This loss of forest land could potentially increase, especially if we do not find a comprehensive solution to this problem.

The Agriculture Act of 2014 provided the tools for the Forest Service to successfully manage our national forests. These provisions allow for expedited planning for projects, and it reauthorizes programs to allow the Forest Service to streamline projects, such as timber sale and restoration projects, or projects across neighboring jurisdictions.

To build on the efforts of the 2014 Farm bill, the House recently passed H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015. This legislation is an earnest attempt to give the Forest Service more authority and much needed flexibility to address these challenges of process, funding, litigation, necessary timber harvesting, and essential active management.

While the Administration has publicly opposed H.R. 2647 because of a few provisions, I think there is much from this legislation that will serve to reduce catastrophic wildfires. There is not a single solution to solving wildfire issues.  I hope that today’s hearing will allow us to continue a dialogue to identify comprehensive solutions.

We are very fortunate to have Forest Service Tidwell testify before the subcommittee today.  I hope to hear from the Chief on his experience with wildfire issues and what tools he has at his disposal and what tools he needs to further prevent and suppress wildfires. 

I also look forward to hearing the testimony of our distinguished witnesses on our second panel.  These individuals will be able to speak first-hand about the consequences of catastrophic wildfires and the need to find comprehensive solutions to address this issue.

I now recognize the ranking member, Ms. Lujan-Grisham, for her opening statement.