Zinke Applauds Advancement of Forest Management and Wildfire Fix in Senate

Statement

Today, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held a markup to consider Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke's forest reform bill, H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015. Last Friday, Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), released emergency wildfire legislation as an amendment in the nature of a substitute for H.R. 2647, which passed committee today by a vote of 11-9. S. 3085, the Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act, is similar to Rep. Zinke's which passed the House on July 9, 2015, and was referred to the Senate. Both bills pair a responsible solution to "fire borrowing" with much-needed reforms to improve forest health on federal lands.

"I applaud the Senate Ag committee for their work today advancing forest management solutions which will improve the health of our forests and help limit damaging and catastrophic wildfires," said Rep. Zinke. "We have a forest management problem of epic proportions. Right here in Montana, we had the Roaring Lion Fire, which burned an area that was just two weeks away from beginning a collaborative thinning project before radical environmentalists decided to sue. My bill reins in these frivolous lawsuits which hurt our forests, and allows the Forest Service to actually manage their lands in a scientifically-sound way. It also solves one of the biggest budget problems facing the agency by ending the fire-borrowing problem which robs critical forest management funds. Today is a great step in the right direction and it is my hope Senate Democrats don't play shenanigans and block this bill from passing. Who knows what is in store for the next wildfire season."

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