Cattlemen Applaud Senate Passage of Healthy Forest Initiative

The President’s Healthy Forest Initiative, designed to care for forests and rangelands, reduce the risk to communities, and protect delicate ecosystems and wildlife habitat, is one step closer to becoming law as the Healthy Forest Restoration Act passed the Senate late yesterday.

 The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) have long supported the bill, which will prevent forage from being crowded by invasive weeds or afflicted with insects or disease. In addition, wildfire prevention measures will enhance the safety of rural communities vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire. The vote is especially timely as one of the worst wildfires in California’s history has already destroyed nearly 900 square miles – an area about the size of Rhode Island – and continues to burn.

 “Wildfires, disease, insects and weeds threaten the rangelands and forestlands where cattle graze,” says Idaho cattle producer and NCBA President Eric Davis.  “In addition, the devastating situation in California has all of us thinking about what we can do to better protect our homes, farms, ranches and communities. This bill will help provide those tools and programs.” 

 The Healthy Forests Initiative calls for the implementation of hazardous fuels reduction projects to restore forests and woodlands to healthier, natural conditions, and to assist in executing core components of the National Fire Plan. It also provides public land managers the tools to undertake commonsense management of forests and woodlands, and calls for more timely responses to disease and insect infestations that threaten to devastate forests.

 “Taking care of the land is a priority for cattlemen who are out on the land every day dealing with these threats,” says Arizona producer Andy Groseta who also chairs NCBA’s Federal Lands Committee. “These programs will not only help the management of public lands, but also protect the neighboring private lands where many producers have operations.”

 According to White House reports, an estimated 190 million acres of Federal forests and rangelands in the United States – an area almost twice the size of California – continue to face an elevated risk of catastrophic fire due to unnatural, densely packed forest conditions and insect and disease damage.

 The House legislation, H.R. 1904, passed on May 20, 2003 with strong bipartisan support and now the bill moves to conference.  “This is an initiative that protects the environment as well as vital rural communities,” says Groseta. “This makes sense for everyone, and we look forward to the President signing it into law very soon.”