Walden calls for hearing on healthy forest bill

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Rep. Greg Walden

In a speech Friday to the Association of Oregon Loggers in Eugene, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) announced that he and a bipartisan group of representatives were calling for their healthy forests and job creation legislation to receive hearings in the House of Representatives.

“With a bipartisan, multi-state coalition, we’ve made a good case that these bills have broad support and should receive hearings in House committees,” Walden said. “With staggering unemployment and sick national forests in Oregon, action is needed now to put Oregonians back to work taking care of the forests and habitat they provide. The first step would be a hearing, and hopefully the majority will grant that as quickly as possible.”

The letter was signed by the original cosponsors of the two pieces of legislation: Reps. Walden, Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), Brian Baird (D-Wash.), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) on Dec. 8, 2009. Between the five representatives, their districts represent a total of over 112.4 million acres, or 175,755 square miles of land, and have over 15.3 million acres of national forest, an area about the size of West Virginia.

The Healthy Forests Restoration Amendments Act of 2009 (HR 4233) has 21 bipartisan cosponsors and would amend the original bipartisan and successful Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA), which was signed into law in 2003. Where implemented, it has reduced the incidence and severity of catastrophic wildfire.

Since the bill was signed into law, however, wildfires have burned more than 40 million acres in the United States, an area larger than North Dakota, and have devastated habitat, water sources, and communities in rural America. The new legislation would give federal foresters and scientists the clear authority to use the proven-to-work tools in HFRA to address areas of the forests at highest risk of catastrophic wildfire.

A second bill, the Incentives to Increase Use of Renewable Biomass Act of 2009 (HR 4227), has eight bipartisan cosponsors and would encourage the renewable biomass energy industry to take firm roots by encouraging universities, public schools, hospitals, local governments, and Tribes at non-gaming facilities to use clean biomass energy, heating, or cooling systems.

"Forest managers would welcome the opportunity to plan and prescribe treatments that better match the scale of the problems that exist," said Paul Adams, professor in Oregon State University's College of Forestry. "Concerns about the effects of climate change and carbon losses only add to the impor¬tance of getting more effective treatments quickly underway. Forest health and fuel treatments can be very costly when most of the material removed has little or no value. Biomass fuel use would offer a great tool to help cover treatment costs while also providing low-cost energy for public buildings in local communities.”