Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention Act of 2013
Key claim: A 2013 Senate bill that never became law would have let the Forest Service and Interior Department run wildfire-prevention projects on national forests and public lands using livestock grazing, thinning, and timber harvest, and would have required endangered-species recovery plans to include a wildfire-risk analysis.
Abstract
(S1479 · 113th Congress) Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention Act of 2013 - Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA), with respect to National Forest System lands, and the Secretary of the Interior, with respect to public lands, to implement authorized wildfire prevention projects in at-risk forests and on threatened and endangered species habitat in a manner that focuses on surface, ladder, and canopy fuels reduction activities. Requires projects carried out on threatened and endangered species habitat to: (1) provide enhanced protection from wildfire, including catastrophic wildfire, for the endangered species, threatened species, or their habitat; and (2) comply with applicable recovery plan guidelines. Requires projects carried out in at-risk forests to move the federal land from condition class II or III toward condition class I, as those classes were developed by the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station in a specified general technical report. Permits use in a project of: (1) domestic livestock grazing to reduce surface fuel loads and to recover burned areas; and (2) timber harvesting and thinning to reduce ladder and canopy fuel loads for the prevention of wildfire, including catastrophic wildfires. Directs the Secretaries to review public petitions for, and make determinations with respect to, the designation of federal lands as at-risk forests or as threatened and endangered species habitats. Requires notice in the Federal Register of proposed projects and final designated projects and permits public comment on projects as specified. Instructs the Secretaries to prepare an environmental assessment for projects that include timber harvesting or grazing. Instructs the Secretaries to research what impact any listing of a species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 would have on both forage and timber forest fuel loads. Requires endangered species recovery plans and critical habitat determinations to include a wildfire risk assessment analysis. Latest action (2013-11-20): Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 113-342.
Why this matters
The bill illustrates a recurring policy debate over whether federal wildfire management should lean more heavily on active vegetation removal — grazing, thinning, and timber harvest — versus current NEPA and Endangered Species Act constraints. Even though it never became law, tracking such proposals shows how ranchers, timber operators, and rural communities have long sought a formal role in federal fuels-reduction work, and how endangered-species recovery planning intersects with wildfire risk on shared landscapes.