§6591b Administrative Review

Summary

Lets certain forest restoration projects skip a full environmental review and the special administrative review if they follow rules in section 6591a(d). To qualify, a project must be a forest restoration effort that keeps old-growth and large trees when appropriate, uses the best available science to restore or keep healthy forest structure and connections, and is planned and carried out through a collaborative process with many people from different interests that is open or meets resource-advisory committee rules. It can also be part of a proposal that fits the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program rules. A project may not be larger than 3000 acres. It must be in the wildland-urban interface or in Condition Classes 2 or 3 in Fire Regime Groups I, II, or III outside that interface. Projects must not create new permanent roads; existing permanent roads can be maintained; any temporary road must be closed and reclaimed within 3 years after the project ends. The rules do not apply inside National Wilderness Preservation System units, lands where cutting vegetation is banned by law or proclamation, congressionally designated wilderness study areas, or places where the work would conflict with the land unit’s management plan. Projects must follow the unit’s land and resource management plan, and the agency must give public notice and do scoping. The agency must report each year on acres treated, starting not later than 1 year after February 7, 2014, and every year after, and send the report to the Senate Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and on Environment and Public Works; the House Committees on Agriculture and on Natural Resources; and the Government Accountability Office.