§6512 Authorized Hazardous Fuel Reduction Projects

Summary

The Secretary must carry out hazardous fuel reduction projects as soon as practical after December 3, 2003, under the Implementation Plan. Projects may happen on federal land in wildland-urban interface areas; on condition class 3 land near a municipal water supply or streams that feed it; on condition class 2 land in fire regimes I, II, or III near such water supplies; on federal land where windthrow, ice damage, disease, or insect epidemics threaten nearby resources; and on federal land with threatened or endangered species habitat if natural fire regimes matter for the species or wildfire is listed as a threat, the project will help protect the species or its habitat, and the Secretary follows any applicable recovery or management plan guidelines. Projects must follow the resource management plan and other policies for the land. No more than 20,000,000 acres of federal land may be treated. Projects cannot be done in National Wilderness Preservation System areas, lands where removing vegetation is barred by law or presidential proclamation (including implementation plans), or Wilderness Study Areas. “Management direction” = one-line rules for old growth in a resource plan. “Old growth stand” = a stand defined as old growth under that management direction. For covered projects the Secretary must maintain or help restore old growth structure and composition to pre-fire-suppression conditions, keep the large trees, and consider fire and watershed health. If the management direction was set on or after December 15, 1993, the Secretary must follow it. If it was set before that date, the Secretary must review and, within the applicable period (the 2-year period beginning December 3, 2003, or a 3-year period if a plan was being revised on that date), update the direction to reflect new science or stop work in stands identified as old growth during scoping until the review is done or the 20,000,000-acre cap is reached. Except where old growth rules already meet these requirements, projects should focus on small-tree removal, thinning, strategic fuel breaks, and prescribed fire to reduce severe wildfire effects while keeping large trees when appropriate. The Secretary must monitor a representative sample of projects for each Forest Service region and each BLM State Office and issue reports not later than 5 years after December 3, 2003 and every 5 years after that, evaluating progress and recommending changes. New projects approved after a report should, as much as possible, follow the report’s recommendations. Monitoring must compare pretreatment conditions, historical fire regimes, and plan goals; include multiparty monitoring where there is interest and involve diverse stakeholders including tribes; allow use of cooperative agreements, contracts, or grants with small businesses, nonprofits, Youth Conservation Corps, and conservation corps to collect data; track acres burned by severity for large wildfires; and develop a process to monitor maintenance needs over time.