Agreement skips over wildfire funding fix
This story from E&E News is especially timely. We’ve been pushing hard here at Forest Legacies on the fire fix funding as there are really bad logging provisions being proposed by Congress that would usher in massive logging on national forests, eliminate roadless and old growth protections on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, and bypass landmark environmental laws. We recently with law makers and the reporter below while in DC. This is a big push nationally to maintain public lands protections that we are involved with.
By Marc Heller and Geof Koss, E&E News reporters
Originally Published at E&E News on Thursday, February 8, 2018
The battle over federal wildfire funding and forest management will go on, given that a broad budget deal between Senate leaders failed to resolve the issue.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairwoman of the Senate Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, said yesterday that leaders pulled away from a wildfire provision in the hours before announcing the two-year budget agreement (E&E News PM, Feb. 7).
“It’s my understanding that the powers that be, if you will, just chose not to include it in this particular agreement,” Murkowski told reporters.
The measure’s silence on the most critical issue in forest policy is likely to be a major disappointment to organizations that have been pressing Congress for a new way to fund wildfire suppression and
encourage management practices that could reduce the risk of catastrophic fires.
Lawmakers have been seeking an end to the Forest Service’s annual transfer of funds from non-fire-related accounts to cover rising wildfire costs through the creation of a fund that would treat fires
like natural disasters.
But Democrats and Republicans are split on a GOP priority of scaling back environmental reviews on forest-thinning projects. That disagreement may have helped sink a deal, lobbyists tracking the issue
said, as a wildfire measure without forest management changes faces long odds in the House.
Murkowski said the two pieces are equally important. “We were trying to advance them in tandem,” she said.
However, the goal isn’t dead, Murkowski said, and lawmakers have said they’ll look to attach the issue to other legislation. Such an effort might include the 2018 farm bill, which includes programs at the
Forest Service, according to organizations involved in the issue. “That doesn’t mean that it’s off the table moving forward,” Murkowski said. “And that’s good because we still need a wildfire budget fix, and we still need the forest management reforms.”
Groups seeking management reforms and wildfire budgeting changes together had pressed for provisions that could reduce lawsuits on forest projects and speed management work by limiting some environmental reviews to either the project as proposed or no action. Those ideas have had support from some Democrats as well as Republicans. Forest policy groups made a last-minute pitch yesterday to persuade Senate and House leaders, saying in a letter, “Please exert your leadership to prevent these negotiations from breaking down. The future of our forests and communities is on the line.”
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Robert Macnee, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of Resilience Services at Climate Resilience Consulting, where he helps governments, institutions, and communities reduce climate risk in equitable and practical ways. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management focused on climate change impacts on health and communities, and brings over a decade of experience spanning economic development, resilience planning, and implementation.
Samantha Medlock is President of Climate Risk Advisors, helping communities and organizations advance equity, sustainability, and resilience. Her career began chasing floods as a local official in Texas Flash Flood Alley—a hands-on experience that still shapes her approach to climate and disaster risk management.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014).
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.