Lamborn Presses Forest Service Chief On Larger Budget Request Despite Targeting '200,000 Less Acres'

6 months ago

During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) spoke about the Forest Service FY25 budget request.

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Transcript

00:00 I'd now like to recognize the gentleman from Colorado

00:02 for five minutes of questioning.

00:05 >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:06 Chief Moore, last year I asked you questions regarding wildfires,

00:11 specifically on thinning and fuels management.

00:15 You concurred that healthy forests should have between 50

00:17 to 80 trees per acre, as opposed to 250 to 300

00:21 that national forests near my district have.

00:24 As I said last time, in the fall of 2020,

00:26 Colorado saw the two largest wildfires in state history,

00:29 the Cameron Peak Fire and the East Troublesome Fire.

00:33 Most of these happened on federal land.

00:35 Despite robust funding, fuel material continues to pile

00:39 up on federal lands.

00:41 In fact, the fiscal year '25 presidential budget request

00:44 asked for more money while targeting 200,000 less acres

00:48 than last year.

00:49 Has there been any change since we spoke

00:52 on the Forest Service's position

00:54 on tree thinning and fuels management?

00:57 >> Yeah, we're constantly looking at fuels management.

01:01 And in Colorado, particularly along the front range,

01:04 that's one of our priority landscapes.

01:06 And so we have ramped up treatments

01:09 in the front range landscapes.

01:11 And so we're making actually a lot of progress there,

01:13 Congressman, in terms of what we're able to do in terms

01:16 of treatments on those landscapes.

01:18 >> Okay, very good.

01:20 Also, the last time that you were in front

01:22 of this committee you resisted the Forest Service using fuel

01:27 related categorical exclusions.

01:30 And that is why I introduced the locally led restoration act

01:33 to provide flexibility in stewardship contracts while

01:37 focusing on wildlife mitigation through fuel removal.

01:42 So my question is, you mentioned collaborating

01:44 with community leaders.

01:46 Please share what conversations, if any,

01:50 you have had regarding stewardship

01:52 and timber contracts with industry.

01:56 >> Yeah, so we've had a number of memorandum understandings

02:00 and agreements with some of the industry folks.

02:03 One of the latest ones we've had was with NAFO,

02:08 the National Association of Forest Owners.

02:10 And two of the contracts there had to do with, one,

02:16 is that for the timber owners, or the land owners,

02:21 we have agreed to allow them to jump on a fire if it's

02:26 in their area during an initial attack.

02:28 So that's been in place for a year now.

02:31 And we went back and did an after action review this past

02:34 winter to look to see if there was any value to that.

02:38 And we found out with the timber and forest owners

02:42 that there was value.

02:43 In fact, we saw a couple of fires that they were able

02:46 to get to that could have grown into larger fires.

02:49 The other piece that we, other agreement that we have

02:52 with industry is to look at opportunities

02:56 after a fire for reforestation.

02:58 And so we entered into an agreement,

03:00 actually with Sierra Forest Industries.

03:03 And in that agreement, they have reforested some

03:08 of the National Forest managed land as they were doing theirs.

03:11 And I think we had about 120 acres this past year on that.

03:14 And so we're looking at a lot of different opportunities

03:17 that partner with industry and other community leaders

03:21 to look at bringing them into the decision space

03:24 on what we do out there.

03:26 >> Okay. And that's good to see that progress being made.

03:29 What this bill would do, I just mentioned, is instead of all

03:33 or nothing contracts, it lets there be a counteroffer,

03:36 which is prevalent in the private sector,

03:40 but for some reason doesn't exist with forest service.

03:43 So I would love to see that legislation go forward,

03:47 give you that authorization as another tool in the toolkit

03:50 and another way for industry to be relevant in this space.

03:54 I've also proposed using private sectors

04:00 in whatever areas I can in all kinds

04:03 of government service areas.

04:05 There's a shortage of lumber

04:07 and wood products during the pandemic, for instance,

04:10 yet timber harvests have dropped since the early '90s

04:14 and wildfires have continued to skyrocket.

04:17 The U.S. produced 112 million board feet in '87, but in 2022,

04:22 less than 5 million board feet.

04:25 So production has gone down while wildfires have gone up.

04:30 You mentioned the problems with litigation.

04:32 Are there other things that could be done

04:34 to restore some balance here?

04:37 You know, no one's talking about clear-cutting millions of acres,

04:40 but having some kind of balance with American jobs and products

04:45 so we don't have to import so much from other countries.

04:48 >> Yeah, Congressman, I've committed earlier

04:50 with Chairman Tiffany to really take a look at our data

04:54 because the information that you just shared,

04:57 I have different information that says the opposite.

05:00 And I think, you know, you can sometimes have a seesaw effect

05:03 from year to year about what timber is,

05:06 but my data is telling me that we've seen slight increases

05:11 over the last 20 years, actually to the tune of about 30%.

05:15 And so I would like to be able to sit down,

05:18 and I've agreed already to sit down with committee members here

05:21 to go into a bit more detail on sharing that information.

05:25 >> Okay, thank you.

05:26 Are you at the back, Mr. Chairman?

05:27 >> Chairman Niels, I'd now like to recognize the gentleman

Lamborn Presses Forest Service Chief On Larger Budget Request Despite Targeting '200,000 Less Acres'

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