WASHINGTON, June 28, 2017 - The House Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday passed the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017, which the panel says “solves the problem of ‘fire-borrowing.”
The legislation seeks to reduce the threat of wildfires through clearing dead trees and promoting reforestation and rehabilitation. Committee chair and Utah Republican Rob Bishop said in a statement “active management is needed to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires and improve the health and resiliency of our forests and grasslands.”
The solution, Bishop noted, requires more than just money. Arkansas Republican Bruce Westerman, the sponsor of the bill, said it would reduce wildfire risk “through active forest management, addressing both the symptoms and the underlying cause of catastrophic fires in our national forests.”
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