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SJM104.........................................by RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT
FOREST FUELS - Stating findings of the Legislature and urging federal land
management agencies to work closely with the states and local governments
to implement a cohesive strategy to reduce the overabundance of forest
fuels.
02/08 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing
02/09 Rpt prt - to 10th Ord
02/13 10th Ord - ADOPTED - voice vote - to House
02/14 House intro - 1st rdg - to Res/Con
03/02 Rpt out - rec d/p - to 2nd rdg
03/05 2nd rdg - to 3rd rdg
03/06 3rd rdg - ADOPTED - 57-0-13
AYES -- Barrett, Bedke, Bell, Bieter, Black, Boe, Bolz, Bradford,
Bruneel, Campbell, Chase, Clark, Collins, Cuddy, Denney, Ellis,
Ellsworth, Eskridge, Field(13), Gagner, Gould, Hadley, Hammond,
Harwood, Henbest, Higgins, Hornbeck, Jaquet, Kellogg, Kendell, Lake,
Loertscher, Mader, Marley, McKague, Meyer, Mortensen, Moss, Moyle,
Pearce, Pischner, Pomeroy, Ridinger, Roberts, Robison, Sali,
Schaefer, Sellman, Shepherd, Smith, Smylie, Stone, Swan(Hansen),
Tilman, Trail, Wheeler, Young
NAYS -- None
Absent and excused -- Barraclough(Barraclough), Callister, Crow,
Deal, Field(20), Jones, Kunz, Langford, Montgomery, Raybould,
Stevenson, Wood, Mr. Speaker
Floor Sponsor -- Cuddy
Title apvd - to Senate
03/07 To enrol
03/08 Rpt enrol - Pres signed
03/09 Sp signed
03/12 To Secretary of State
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO ||||
Fifty-sixth Legislature First Regular Session - 2001
IN THE SENATE
SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 104
BY RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
1 A JOINT MEMORIAL
2 TO THE HONORABLE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE SECRETARY OF THE INTE-
3 RIOR, THE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, THE UNITED STATES
4 FOREST SERVICE, THE UNITED STATES PARK SERVICE, THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION,
5 THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
6 THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGA-
7 TION REPRESENTING THE STATE OF IDAHO IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
8 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the
9 State of Idaho assembled in the First Regular Session of the Fifty-sixth Idaho
10 Legislature, do hereby respectfully represent that:
11 WHEREAS, the April 1999 General Accounting Office report entitled "Western
12 National Forests -- A Cohesive Strategy is Needed to Address Catastrophic
13 Wildfire Threats" states, "The most extensive and serious problem related to
14 the health of national forests in the interior west is the over accumulation
15 of vegetation, which has caused an increasing number of large, intense, uncon-
16 trollable, and catastrophically destructive wildfires"; and
17 WHEREAS, the U.S. Forest Service report entitled "Protecting People and
18 Sustaining Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosystems -- A Cohesive Strategy" in
19 response to the General Accounting Office report, confirmed the conclusion
20 stated above and further warns, "Without increased restoration
21 treatments...wildfire suppression costs, natural resource losses, private
22 property losses, and environmental damage are certain to escalate as fuels
23 continue to accumulate and more acres become high-risk." The report also spec-
24 ifies that, at a low intensity, fire is ecologically beneficial, and has posi-
25 tive effects on biodiversity, soil productivity, and water quality; and
26 WHEREAS, the U.S. Forest Service further acknowledges that 39 million
27 acres of national forest are at significant risk of catastrophic wildfire and
28 an additional 26 million acres will be at similar risk due to increases in the
29 mortality of trees and brush caused by insects and disease; and
30 WHEREAS, the National Research Council and the Federal Emergency Manage-
31 ment Agency recognized catastrophic wildfires such as those in California in
32 1993, Florida in 1998 and Idaho in 2000 as among the defining natural disas-
33 ters of the decade; and
34 WHEREAS, catastrophic wildfires not only cause damage to the forests and
35 other lands, but place the lives of firefighters at risk and pose threats to
36 human health, personal property, sustainable ecosystems, air and water qual-
37 ity; and
38 WHEREAS, according to the National Fire Protection Association, wildland-
39 urban interface catastrophic wildfires from 1985 to 1994 destroyed 9,925
40 homes, and in 1999 burned 6 million acres of public lands nationwide, equiva-
41 lent to a 1.5 mile-wide swath from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles and back;
42 and in 2000 burned 7.2 million acres, of which 1.2 million were in Idaho,
43 costing the state of Idaho $10 million in state firefighting funds and burning
44 1 billion board feet of timber, enough to build 100,000 single family houses;
2
1 and
2 WHEREAS, the escaped Cerro Grande prescribed fire in May 2000, which con-
3 sumed 48,000 acres, destroyed 400 homes with losses exceeding $1 billion in
4 Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the escaped Lowden prescribed fire in 1999 that
5 destroyed 23 homes in Lewiston, California, highlight the unacceptable risks
6 of using prescribed burning if, as reported, that burning was the sole forest
7 management practice of federal land management agencies; and
8 WHEREAS, high risk forest fuel has accumulated in combination with reduced
9 fire response capability by federal agencies during the 1990's, resulting in
10 catastrophic wildfires, like those near Atlanta and Burgdorf, Idaho, becoming
11 more difficult and expensive to extinguish, with a disproportionate burden
12 being placed on state and local resources, while the costs to fight these
13 fires increased by 150 percent between 1986 and 1994, and the costs of main-
14 taining a readiness force increased by 70 percent between 1992 and 1997; and
15 WHEREAS, current planning efforts of the U.S. Forest Service such as the
16 Sierra Nevada Framework, Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project,
17 the Roadless Initiative Rule, and the Federal Monument proclamations rely pri-
18 marily on extensive use of prescribed fire, which will further exacerbate the
19 risk of catastrophic wildfire on federal lands throughout the west.
20 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the First Regular Session
21 of the Fifty-sixth Idaho Legislature, the Senate and the House of Representa-
22 tives concurring therein, that in the interest of protecting the integrity and
23 posterity of our forest and wild lands, wildlife habitat, watershed, air qual-
24 ity, human health and safety, and private property, the U.S. Forest Service
25 and other federal land management agencies must immediately implement a cohe-
26 sive strategy to reduce the overabundance of forest fuels that place these
27 resources at high risk of catastrophic wildfire.
28 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the agencies utilize an appropriate mix of
29 fire suppression activities and forest management methodologies, including
30 selective thinning, selective harvesting, grazing, the removal of excessive
31 ground fuels, and small-scale prescribed burns, including increased private,
32 local and state contracts for prefire treatments on federal forest lands. More
33 effective fire suppression on federal forest lands should be pursued through
34 increased funding of mutual aid agreements with professional state and local
35 public firefighting agencies.
36 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, in the interest of forest health, protection
37 and rural community safety, the Departments of Agriculture and Interior work
38 closely with states and local governments to implement a national prescribed
39 fire strategy for public lands that creates a process for evaluation of worst
40 case scenarios for risk of escape and identifies alternatives that will
41 achieve the land management objectives while minimizing the risk and use of
42 prescribed fire. This strategy should be incorporated into any regulatory land
43 use planning program that proposes the use of prescribed fire as a management
44 practice.
45 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate be, and she is
46 hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this Memorial to the Hon-
47 orable President of the United States, George W. Bush, the Secretary of the
48 Interior, the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, the United States
49 Forest Service, the United States Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the
50 Bureau of Land Management, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the
51 House of Representatives of Congress, and the congressional delegation repre-
52 senting the State of Idaho in the Congress of the United States.