[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1462 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1462
To improve forest management activities on National Forest System land,
public land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management,
and Tribal land to return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested
land, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 10, 2025
Mr. Curtis (for himself, Mr. Hickenlooper, Mr. Sheehy, and Mr. Padilla)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To improve forest management activities on National Forest System land,
public land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management,
and Tribal land to return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested
land, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Fix Our Forests
Act''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
TITLE I--LANDSCAPE-SCALE RESTORATION
Subtitle A--Addressing Emergency Wildfire Risks in High-priority
Firesheds
Sec. 101. Designation of fireshed management areas.
Sec. 102. Wildfire Intelligence Center.
Sec. 103. Fireshed Registry.
Sec. 104. Shared stewardship.
Sec. 105. Fireshed assessments.
Sec. 106. Emergency fireshed management.
Sec. 107. Sunset.
Subtitle B--Expanding Collaborative Tools to Reduce Wildfire Risk and
Improve Forest Health
Sec. 111. Modification of treatment of certain revenue and payments
under good neighbor agreements.
Sec. 112. Fixing stewardship end result contracting.
Sec. 113. Fireshed management project strike teams.
Sec. 114. Locally led restoration.
Sec. 115. Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership Program.
Sec. 116. Collaborative forest landscape restoration program.
Sec. 117. Utilizing grazing for wildfire risk reduction.
Sec. 118. Water Source Protection Program.
Sec. 119. Watershed Condition Framework technical corrections.
Sec. 120. Tribal forest protection management activities and projects.
Subtitle C--Litigation Reform
Sec. 121. Commonsense litigation reform.
Sec. 122. Consultation on forest plans.
Subtitle D--Prescribed Fire
Sec. 131. Prescribed fire eligible activities, policies, and practices.
Sec. 132. Human resources.
Sec. 133. Liability of prescribed fire managers.
Sec. 134. Environmental review.
Sec. 135. Cooperative agreements and contracts for prescribed fire.
Sec. 136. Facilitating responsible use of prescribed fire.
TITLE II--PROTECTING COMMUNITIES IN WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE
Subtitle A--Community Wildfire Risk Reduction
Sec. 201. Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program.
Sec. 202. Community Wildfire Defense Research Program.
Sec. 203. Community wildfire defense accountability.
Sec. 204. Community wildfire defense grant program improvements.
Sec. 205. Updated definition of at-risk community.
Subtitle B--Vegetation Management, Reforestation, and Local Fire
Suppression
Sec. 211. Vegetation management, facility inspection, and operation and
maintenance relating to electric
transmission and distribution facility
rights-of-way.
Sec. 212. Fire-safe electrical corridors.
Sec. 213. Categorical exclusion for high-priority hazard trees.
Sec. 214. Seeds of Success strategy.
Sec. 215. Program to support priority reforestation and restoration
projects.
Sec. 216. Reforestation, nurseries, and genetic resources support.
Sec. 217. Fire department repayment.
TITLE III--TRANSPARENCY, TECHNOLOGY, AND PARTNERSHIPS
Subtitle A--Transparency and Technology
Sec. 301. Biochar innovations and opportunities for conservation,
health, and advancements in research.
Sec. 302. Accurate hazardous fuels reduction reports.
Sec. 303. Public-private wildfire technology deployment and
demonstration partnership.
Sec. 304. GAO study on Forest Service policies.
Sec. 305. Keeping forest plans current and monitored.
Sec. 306. Container Aerial Firefighting System.
Sec. 307. Study on pine beetle infestation.
Subtitle B--White Oak Resilience
Sec. 311. White Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition.
Sec. 312. Forest Service pilot program.
Sec. 313. Department of the Interior white oak review and restoration.
Sec. 314. White oak regeneration and upland oak habitat.
Sec. 315. Tree nursery shortages.
Sec. 316. White oak research.
Sec. 317. USDA formal initiative.
Sec. 318. Use of authorities.
TITLE IV--ENSURING CASUALTY ASSISTANCE FOR FIREFIGHTERS
Sec. 401. Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) End water user.--The term ``end water user'' has the
meaning given the term in section 303(a) of the Healthy Forests
Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6542(a)).
(2) Executive director.--The term ``Executive Director''
means the Executive Director of the Wildfire Intelligence
Center appointed under section 102(g).
(3) Fireshed.--The term ``fireshed'' means a landscape-
scale area, as delineated using methods developed through
research conducted by the Forest Service, that represents
similar source levels of community exposure to wildfire.
(4) Fireshed management area.--The term ``fireshed
management area'' means a fireshed management area designated
under section 101(a).
(5) Fireshed management project.--The term ``fireshed
management project'' means any of the following forest or
vegetation management activities:
(A) A hazardous fuels management activity.
(B) Creating a fuel break or fire break.
(C) Removing hazard trees, dead trees, or dying
trees, as determined by a responsible official.
(D) Developing, approving, or conducting routine
maintenance under a vegetation management, facility
inspection, and operation and maintenance plan under
section 512(c) of the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)).
(E) Removing trees to address overstocking or
crowding in a forest stand, consistent with achieving
the appropriate basal area of the forest stand, as
determined by a responsible official.
(F) Using treatments to address insects or disease
or to control vegetation competition or invasive
species.
(G) A wet-meadow, floodplain, or riparian
restoration activity that increases wildfire
resistance.
(H) A forest stand improvement activity necessary
to protect life and property from catastrophic
wildfire, as determined by a responsible official.
(I) Any combination of activities described in this
paragraph.
(6) Fireshed registry.--The term ``Fireshed Registry''
means the registry established under section 103(a).
(7) Forest plan.--The term ``forest plan'' means--
(A) a land use plan prepared by the Bureau of Land
Management for public land pursuant to section 202 of
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43
U.S.C. 1712);
(B) a land and resource management plan prepared by
the Forest Service for a unit of the National Forest
System pursuant to section 6 of the Forest and
Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16
U.S.C. 1604); and
(C) a forest management plan (as defined in section
304 of the National Indian Forest Resources Management
Act (25 U.S.C. 3103)) with respect to Indian forest
land or rangeland.
(8) Governor.--The term ``Governor'' means the Governor or
other appropriate executive official of--
(A) a State; or
(B) an Indian Tribe.
(9) Hazardous fuels management activity.--The term
``hazardous fuels management activity'' means a vegetation
management activity, or any combination of such activities,
that reduces the risk of wildfire, including mechanical
thinning, mastication, prescribed burning, cultural burning (as
determined by an applicable Indian Tribe), timber harvest, and
grazing.
(10) HFRA terms.--The terms ``at-risk community'',
``community wildfire protection plan'', and ``wildland-urban
interface'' have the meanings given those terms in section 101
of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C.
6511).
(11) Indian forest land or rangeland.--The term ``Indian
forest land or rangeland'' means land that--
(A) is held in trust, or subject to a restriction
against alienation, by the United States for an Indian
Tribe or a member of an Indian Tribe; and
(B)(i) is Indian forest land (as defined in section
304 of the National Indian Forest Resources Management
Act (25 U.S.C. 3103)); or
(ii)(I) has a cover of grasses, brush, or any
similar vegetation; or
(II) formerly had a forest cover or vegetative
cover that is capable of restoration.
(12) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian Tribe'' has the
meaning given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
(13) National forest system.--The term ``National Forest
System'' has the meaning given the term in section 11(a) of the
Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974
(16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).
(14) Public land.--The term ``public land'' means--
(A) public lands (as defined in section 103 of the
Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43
U.S.C. 1702));
(B) the land reconveyed to the United States
pursuant to the first section of the Act of February
26, 1919 (40 Stat. 1179, chapter 47) (commonly known as
``Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant lands'') under the
jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior; and
(C) the land revested in the United States by the
Act of June 9, 1916 (39 Stat. 218, chapter 137)
(commonly known as ``Oregon and California Railroad
Grant lands'') under the jurisdiction of the Secretary
of the Interior.
(15) Relevant committees of congress.--The term ``relevant
committees of Congress'' means--
(A) in the Senate--
(i) the Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry; and
(ii) the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources; and
(B) in the House of Representatives--
(i) the Committee on Agriculture; and
(ii) the Committee on Natural Resources.
(16) Secretaries.--The term ``Secretaries'' means--
(A) the Secretary; and
(B) the Secretary of the Interior.
(17) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Agriculture.
(18) Secretary concerned.--The term ``Secretary concerned''
means--
(A) the Secretary, with respect to National Forest
System land; and
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, with respect to
public land.
(19) Special district.--The term ``special district'' means
a political subdivision of a State that--
(A) has significant budgetary autonomy or control;
(B) was established by, or pursuant to, the laws of
the State for the purpose of performing a limited and
specific governmental or proprietary function primarily
relating to land management; and
(C) is distinct from any other unit of local
government within the State.
(20) State.--The term ``State'' means--
(A) each of the several States;
(B) the District of Columbia; and
(C) each territory of the United States.
TITLE I--LANDSCAPE-SCALE RESTORATION
Subtitle A--Addressing Emergency Wildfire Risks in High-priority
Firesheds
SEC. 101. DESIGNATION OF FIRESHED MANAGEMENT AREAS.
(a) Designations.--
(1) Initial designations.--Subject to paragraph (4), for
the 5-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this
Act, the following firesheds are designated as fireshed
management areas:
(A) Each landscape-scale fireshed identified as a
``high-risk fireshed'' in the document published by the
Forest Service entitled ``Wildfire Crisis Strategy''
and dated January 2022.
(B) Of the 7,688 firesheds described in the report
published by the Rocky Mountain Research Station of the
Forest Service in 2019, each landscape-scale fireshed
identified by the Secretary, in consultation with the
Secretary of the Interior, as being in the top 20
percent for wildfire exposure based on the following
criteria:
(i) Wildfire exposure and corresponding
risk to communities, including risk to life,
critical infrastructure, and other structures.
(ii) Wildfire exposure and corresponding
risk to municipal watersheds, including Tribal
water supplies and systems.
(iii) Risk of vegetation type conversion
due to wildfire, based on information from
existing forest plans, State forest action
plans, and best available science.
(2) Designations in alaska, hawaii, and territories.--Not
later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the
Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior,
shall designate in the States of Alaska and Hawaii and the
territories of the United States such additional fireshed
management areas as the Secretaries determine to be
appropriate, based on the criteria described in clauses (i)
through (iii) of paragraph (1)(B).
(3) Map-based updated designations.--
(A) Map of firesheds.--Not later than the date that
is 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act, and
not less frequently than once every 5 years thereafter,
the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of
the Interior, shall submit to the relevant committees
of Congress an updated map of firesheds, which shall--
(i) be based on the Fireshed Registry; and
(ii) include firesheds in the States of
Alaska and Hawaii and the territories of the
United States.
(B) Fireshed management areas.--Not later than 60
days after submitting an updated fireshed map under
subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall designate as a
fireshed management area each fireshed depicted on that
map that the Secretary, in consultation with the
Secretary of the Interior, identifies as being in the
top 20 percent of firesheds at risk of wildfire
exposure based on the criteria described in clauses (i)
through (iii) of paragraph (1)(B) and in accordance
with this section.
(C) Publication.--The Secretary shall make each
updated map prepared under this paragraph publicly
available on the Fireshed Registry.
(4) Land location and content.--A fireshed management area
designated under this subsection--
(A) shall not overlap with any other fireshed
management area; and
(B) may contain Federal and non-Federal land,
including Indian forest land or rangeland.
(5) Combining multiple firesheds.--On receipt of a request
of an affected Governor, the Secretary, in consultation with
the Secretary of the Interior, may expand a fireshed management
area designated under this subsection to include more than 1
fireshed.
(b) Use.--The Secretary concerned may carry out fireshed management
projects on the fireshed management areas designated under this
section.
(c) Applicability of NEPA.--The designation of a fireshed
management area under this section shall not be subject to the
requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
SEC. 102. WILDFIRE INTELLIGENCE CENTER.
(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Board.--The term ``Board'' means the Board governing
the Center appointed under subsection (f).
(2) Center.--The term ``Center'' means the Wildfire
Intelligence Center established under subsection (b).
(b) Establishment.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior
shall establish a joint office, to be known as the ``Wildfire
Intelligence Center'', the duties of which are to study, plan,
coordinate, and implement issues of joint concern among the Department
of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, including--
(1) serving as the development and operational center for
the comprehensive assessment and prediction of wildfires and
fires that move into the built environment to provide decision
support services to inform land and fuels management, community
outreach and risk reduction, post-wildfire recovery and
reh