A fire extinguisher for U.S. forests.

Here is some good news! In mid-May, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the aptly name "Healthy Forests Restoration Act," which now goes to the Senate. This Act addresses some serious problems I addressed in my November 2002 Viewpoint, "Out of the frying pan." That column noted that some very destructive and catastrophic wildfires occurred in the summer of 2002. Their cause was primarily deliberate neglect and astonishingly inept forest management practices. Last year, these intensely hot and lethal wildfires scorched more than 7 million acres of forestland in the United States--more than double the 10-year average far forest fire damage.

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act, if passed by the Senate and signed by President Bush, will provide some tools necessary to protect targeted federal forests and the land and property adjacent to them from catastrophic damage. The U.S. Forest Service could thin up to 20 million acres of public forestland and remove dangerous levels of deadwood. Most such acreage is near where people live. The bill provides experimental fireproofing treatments on 250,000 acres by educational institutions. It also streamlines regulatory review. This is a key provision since some environmental groups are adept at hamstringing new forestry provisions by entangling them in years of regulatory red tape.

Interestingly, the bill passed by a wide margin--258-170 in the House. The vote was lopsided despite intense lobbying by groups such as The Sierra Club that again tried to spin this issue as a right-wing attempt to savage our national forests. Fortunately, common sense prevailed.

On this issue, some environmental groups have demonstrated that they are far from conservationist. By definition, conservationists try to conserve our national resources, not destroy them. The extreme greens argued that allowing forest to burn out of control was allowing nature to run its course. By advocating this position--and showing callous disregard for the immense damage that wildfire does to human beings and their property--the extreme greens showed themselves to be "destructionists", not conservationists. They should know that bad burned forests cannot filter air and water, support biodiversity, or provide effective habitat.

This bill was supported by both forest product companies and labor unions, Henson Moore, president and CEO of the American Forest & Paper Association, which represents forest product companies, said, 'This bill is a victory for forest lovers and forest owners everywhere." He noted that more than 100 million acres of National Forest System land are at high risk to catastrophic wildfire, insect infestation, and disease. More than 90 million acres of other federally-owned land is also at risk. Michael V. Draper, vice president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters' Western Region and chairman of the Forest Products Industry National Labor Management Committee (FPINLMC), said, "The unions of the FPINLMC and our 500,000 members applaud the House's passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. The forest fire season is almost upon us. Therefore, we urge the Senate to pass this important legislation as soon as possible."

Both groups are correct. This bill is about as commonsense as possible. Unfortunately, it exempts millions of other forests from thinning (note the discrepancy between the acreage covered by the act and AF&PA's estimate of at-risk acreage). More legislative work lies ahead, but this is a good start.

Editor's Note: My last column on the topic generated considerable e-mail--tell me what you think about this development: [e-mail].