§6591b Administrative Review

Summary

Allows certain forest restoration projects to skip a full environmental and special administrative review if they follow the program’s rules. To qualify, a project must do treatments that keep old and large trees when appropriate to help make forests resistant to insects and disease; use the best available science to keep or restore ecological health (structure, function, composition, and connectivity); and be planned and carried out through a collaborative process that includes many different interests, is open, or follows resource advisory committee rules. A project may be part of a Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program proposal. Projects may not be larger than 3,000 acres. They must be inside the wildland-urban interface or in Condition Classes 2 or 3 in Fire Regime Groups I, II, or III outside that interface. No new permanent roads are allowed, though existing permanent roads may be maintained. Any temporary road must be closed within 3 years after the project ends. The rule does not apply to National Wilderness Preservation System units, lands where law or a presidential proclamation bans vegetation removal, congressionally designated wilderness study areas, or places where the work would conflict with the land and resource management plan. All projects must follow the unit’s land and resource plan, include public notice and scoping, and be reported yearly (starting within 1 year after February 7, 2014) to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate; the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate; the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives; the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; and the Government Accountability Office.