Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today heard testimony in favor of legislation sponsored by U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici to restore the nation’s forests.

The senators’ bill, the Forest Landscape Restoration Act of 2008, would undertake large-scale national forest restoration projects with an eye toward reducing wildfires, restoring ecosystems and creating jobs. The two senators are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The Forest Landscape Restoration Act authorizes $40 million annually for landscape-scale forest restoration projects that cover 50,000 acres or more. Competitive grants would be awarded to restoration projects that are collaboratively developed to restore forest ecosystems, utilize the best-available science, and encourage the use of restoration byproducts such as woody biomass.

“Wildfire suppression costs have grown dramatically, the affects of global warming are posing an ever-greater threat to forest and watershed health, and the economy continues to struggle. The positive response to this bill that we have received speaks to the importance of these issues and the strength of our comprehensive approach to dealing with them,” Bingaman said.

“We must get serious about undertaking the forest restoration work needed to truly alter the risk of catastrophic wildfires. This bill is a step in the right direction, and I hope it will move Congress to aggressively address the fundamental question of ‘process paralysis.’ We need to speed up the litigation and appeals process that inevitably comes with these projects. Without such changes, the good I see in this legislation will be lost to process,” Domenici said.

Howard Gross, director of the New Mexico-based Forest Guild, was among the witnesses who testified in favor of the bill.

Conceptually, this bill is similar to the Community Forest Restoration Act, legislation Bingaman wrote and Domenici supported. As a result of the measure, which was enacted in 2000, millions of dollars have been invested in small-scale forest restoration projects in New Mexico. This legislation, developed by the New Mexico lawmakers with California Senator Dianne Feinstein, would allow the state to compete for much bigger grants and treat significantly larger pieces of land. Other cosponsors include Senators Wayne Allard (R-CO), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Larry Craig (R-ID), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Patty Murray (D-WA).

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to vote on the bill this spring.