Healthy forests and wildfire prevention

Forest deterioration, drought and wildfire risks

Gunnison County Commissioners wrote a letter last month to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources in support of the Healthy Forest Management and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2015. The bill, reintroduced this year by congressman Scott Tipton of Colorado (it was introduced in 2013 but was never enacted), declares the bark beetle epidemic an imminent threat. Forest deterioration due to beetle kill, in addition to current statewide drought conditions, could result in devastating wildfires that would “pose a significant threat to the economic stability of communities in the affected areas and the health, safety, and well-being of residents, firefighters, and visitors to the area,” according to the bill.

The Healthy Forest Management Act of 2015 also gives state governors the authority to designate high-risk areas of national forest and public lands in the state and, after consulting with local government and Native American tribes in affected counties, implement emergency hazardous fuels reduction projects that address drought, deteriorating forests, wildfire risks, and future risks of insect infestations or disease outbreaks. Excluded from high-risk area designations would be national monuments and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System (one example of such components being the park lands below the rims of the Black Canyon).
In addition, the act extends the stewardship timeframe from ten to 20 years, meaning “the designation of a high-risk area in a state shall expire 20 years after the date of designation…” This doesn’t mean an area cannot be re-designated as high-risk; it simply provides a larger timeframe to complete preventive and restorative projects and requires consultation with county and state governments before those areas can be re-designated.