Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-110

§6704 Establishment of Institutes

Title 16 › CHAPTER 86 — SOUTHWEST FOREST HEALTH AND WILDFIRE PREVENTION › § 6704

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Create Institutes to teach and use adaptive ecosystem management to lower wildfire risk and restore dry forests and woodlands in the interior West. The Secretary, working with the Secretary of the Interior, must set up the Institutes no later than 180 days after October 5, 2004, and must help them use collaborative approaches and adaptive management. One Institute may be an organization already in existence on October 5, 2004. The Secretary must place Institutes in Arizona (at Northern Arizona University), New Mexico (at New Mexico Highlands University, working with the INRAM university consortium), and Colorado. Each Institute must research and promote restoration-style fuel reduction treatments, turn science into usable guidance, help design adaptive management and monitoring, and produce peer-reviewed annual reports. Institutes must show strength in natural, physical, social, and policy sciences and combine those fields in their work. They may work with colleges, extension programs, and regional groups. Each year they must make a work plan with the Secretaries’ review to show the work will meet the needs of affected parties. If, 2 years after October 5, 2004, the model is useful, the Secretary may add Institutes in other interior West States.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §6704

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, shall—

(1)not later than 180 days after October 5, 2004, establish Institutes to promote the use of adaptive ecosystem management to reduce the risk of wildfires, and restore the health of forest and woodland ecosystems, in the interior West; and

(2)provide assistance to the Institutes to promote the use of collaborative processes and adaptive ecosystem management in accordance with paragraph (1).

(b)Location

(1)Existing Institutes

The Secretary may designate an institute in existence on October 5, 2004, to serve as an Institute established under this chapter.

(2)States

Of the Institutes established under this chapter, the Secretary shall establish 1 Institute in each of— (A)

(B)the State of New Mexico, to be located at New Mexico Highlands University, while engaging the full resources of the consortium of universities represented in the Institute of Natural Resource Analysis and Management (INRAM); and

(C)the State of Colorado.

(c)Duties

Each Institute shall—

(1)develop, conduct research on, transfer, promote, and monitor restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction treatments to reduce the risk of severe wildfires and improve the health of dry forest and woodland ecosystems in the interior West;

(2)synthesize and adapt scientific findings from conventional research to implement restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction treatments on a landscape scale using an adaptive ecosystem management framework;

(3)translate for and transfer to affected entities any scientific and interdisciplinary knowledge about restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction treatments;

(4)assist affected entities with the design of adaptive management approaches (including monitoring) for the implementation of restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction treatments; and

(5)provide peer-reviewed annual reports.

(d)Qualifications

Each Institute shall—

(1)develop and demonstrate capabilities in the natural, physical, social, and policy sciences; and

(2)explicitly integrate those disciplines in the performance of the duties listed in subsection (c).

(e)Cooperation

Each Institute may cooperate with—

(1)researchers and cooperative extension programs at colleges, community colleges, and universities in the States of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado that have a demonstrated capability to conduct research described in subsection (c); and

(2)other organizations and entities in the interior West (such as the Western Governors’ Association).

(f)Annual work plans

As a condition of the receipt of funds made available under this chapter, for each fiscal year, each Institute shall develop in consultation with the Secretary, for review by the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, an annual work plan that includes assurances, satisfactory to the Secretaries, that the proposed work of the Institute will serve the informational needs of affected entities.

(g)Establishment of additional Institutes

If after 2 years after October 5, 2004, the Secretary finds that the Institute model established at the locations named in subsection (b)(2) would be constructive for other interior West States, the Secretary may establish 1 institute in each of those States.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 6704

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110