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INTRODUCTION OF THE NORTHERN FRONT RANGE ROADLESS AREA AND MOUNTAIN BACKDROP
PROTECTION ACT AND THE COLORADO FOREST RESTORATION AND FIRE REDUCTION ACT --
HON. MARK UDALL (Extensions of Remarks - July 27, 2000)
[Page: E1375] GPO's PDF
---
HON. MARK UDALL
OF COLORADO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, July 27, 2000
- Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, Colorado's forest lands are one of the
things that makes our state a very special place to live. But as our
population increases, so do the pressures on our forests and the potential
damage that can result from intense wildfires
[Page: E1376] GPO's PDF
in
the areas where residential
areas press against the forests.
- Today, I am introducing two bills that respond to at least some aspects of
these two serious problems. One will provide protection for roadless areas in the Congressional District I
represent. The other would put new emphasis on cooperative efforts to restore
forest lands and prevent catastrophic forest fires in areas of high risk throughout
Colorado.
PROTECTION FOR ROADLESS
AREAS
- The first bill is the Northern Front Range Roadless Area and Mountain Backdrop
Protection Act. Under that bill, the Forest Service would manage over 80,000
acres on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest as ``protected roadless areas .'' All of these areas are within Colorado's Second
Congressional District. They are areas that the Forest Service
identified as roadless in its
1997 Revision of the Land and Resource Management Plan for the
Arapaho-Roosevelt. Most of these areas would be appropriate additions
to existing wilderness areas ,
and they are also included in President Clinton's Roadless Conservation Proposal for the
national forests.
- The Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest is within a few minutes drive for
more than 2.5 million people in the Front Range Denver-metro area. As a
result, it is experiencing increasing use of all kinds, especially
recreational use. I have supported the President's roadless area initiative in part
because I know how those increasing pressures are affecting the
Arapaho-Roosevelt and the other national forests in Colorado. And, with
respect to relevant lands within my own Congressional District, I want to
build on what the President has proposed. So, my first bill would undergird
the President's initiative with a statutory requirement that the Forest
Service manage these areas to
preserve their roadless
qualities until Congress determines otherwise.
- With this interim protection in place, the bill would also require the
Forest Service to study and evaluate these areas and then make recommendations to
Congress regarding their future management. That report would be submitted
within three years. In the meantime, and until Congress decides otherwise,
these roadless areas would be managed under the
``recommended for wilderness'' management category in the Forest Plan, and
require the Forest Service to study and report to Congress in three years
about management options for these lands. The report would include
recommendations about the suitability of wilderness designation for some or
all of these lands but can also include any other recommendations the
Secretary of Agriculture decides to make. The bill will thus maintain all
options and allow the Congress to ultimately resolve the status of these roadless lands.
ROCKY FLATS MOUNTAIN BACKDROP STUDY
- The bill also contains a section intended to help local communities
preserve the Front Range Mountain Backdrop just west of the Rocky Flats
Environmental Technology site.
- As all Coloradans know, Rocky Flats is just a few miles north and west of
Denver. Once, it was a nuclear weapons production facility. But now that
mission is over and the task of the Rocky Flats workforce is to carry out a
thorough, prompt, and effective cleanup and closure. I strongly support that
effort, and am also working to have the prairie land within the site's 6,500
acres protected as wildlife habitat and open space. But I think we need to
look beyond the site's perimeters.
- So far, development in the Denver-metro area has not yet surrounded the
Rocky Flats site. However, growth and sprawl are heading its way. Now is the
time to shape the future of this part of the Front Range, and I think we have
a real but fleeting opportunity to establish Rocky Flats and lands to its west
as a ``crown jewel'' of open space and wildlife habitat that will be of
inestimable value for Coloradans for generations to come. I also think the
federal government can help achieve that goal. So, my bill would call on the
Forest Service to examine the land ownership patterns west of Rocky Flats,
identify lands that are undeveloped, and recommend options on how these areas could be preserved.
FOREST RESTORATION AND WILDFIRE PREVENTION
- The second bill I am introducing is the Colorado Forest Restoration and
Fire Reduction Act. This bill complements the roadless -area protection bill by
addressing some of the most pressing forest issues in other areas --the parts of Colorado's
forests that adjoin urban development and that are at greatest risk for
intense fires that can despoil watersheds and destroy homes.
- As the news headlines continue to report, wildfires on national forests
and other forested lands are a serious problem this summer--especially in
Colorado. Right now, a major fire is still burning at the Mesa Verde National
Park, another fire threatens the watershed of Glenwood Springs, and people are
trying to recover from earlier fires that destroyed homes in areas of the Front Range.
- Part of the problem results from hot, dry weather. But there are other,
contributing factors. For many years, the Forest Service had a policy of
trying to suppress nearly every fire, even though fire is an inescapable part
of the ecology of western forests like those in Colorado. Today, in many parts
of the forests there is an accumulation of underbrush and small diameter trees
that is greater than would be the case if there had been more, smaller fires
over the years. They provide the extra fuel that can turn a small fire into an
intense inferno. Add to that our growing population and increasing development
in the places where communities meet the forests--the so-called ``urban
interface''--and you have a recipe for worse problems ahead.
- Properties, lives, and wildlife habitat are at risk, and so is the
environment. Uncontrolled wildfires strip the land of its protective
vegetative cover, making it highly susceptible to erosion. We have seen what
that means in places like Buffalo Creek, where the eventual rain storms wash
sediment and forest material into waterways, polluting and clogging sources of
drinking water. In addition, wildfires also have serious adverse effects on
the quality of the air.
- Working with state and local partners, including our state forest service,
the U.S. Forest Service has identified the interface areas at greatest risk of fire--the
areas they call the ``red
zone.'' My second bill deals just with those areas .
- Red zone areas in Colorado
are situated in regions that contain complex land ownership
patterns--frequently involving federal, state, Tribal, county, private and
city lands. Those patterns make it difficult for any one agency to deal with
the problem and so makes the problem that more intense. My bill would address
these problems by establishing a program to share costs and provide incentives
for collaborative efforts at forest restoration and fire-prevention projects
in the red zone.
- The bill calls on the Forest Service to work with state and local
agencies, independent scientists, and stakeholder groups to identify
priorities and develop projects for forest restoration and fire prevention.
The bill spells out clear and sound requirements that such projects would have
to meet to be eligible for funding--including preservation of old trees and
trees larger than 12" in diameter. It also specifies that preservation of
roadless areas would be required, and that all
projects would have to meet the requirements of all federal and state
environmental laws.
- To help assure the integrity of the program, the bill would require
establishment of a technical advisory panel, including independent scientists
as well as representatives of relevant agencies and stakeholder groups, to
provide additional guidelines and set priorities. It would also require that
the projects authorized under the bill be monitored and evaluated for their
benefits and any potential adverse impacts to make sure the program is working
as intended. The bill also authorizes funding to provide the federal share of
the costs of the projects developed and implemented under the program.
- Ultimately, the objective of this bill is to develop new collaborative
relationships between the Forest Service and state, local and private forest
experts and landowners--together with the public--to get out on the land and
address problems before they become uncontrollable. The theory of this bill is
that it is cheaper and more effective to prevent fires than to fight them.
Reducing fire risks and restoring natural balance on our forested lands can
help us accomplish that goal.