Senate Approves Bill to Thin U.S. Forests

Against the backdrop of raging wildfires in California, the Senate approved a forest management plan Thursday that would allow expanded tree-thinning on 20 million acres of federal land to reduce the risk of fires.

Meanwhile, the House approved a record $2.9 billion for firefighting and fire protection in federal forests as part of a $20.2-billion spending bill for the Interior Department.

The congressional debate over the forest bill and the firefighting money took on urgency because of the devastating wildfires in the West.

“There is a tremendous lesson in these fires -- that the land has to be managed,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), cosponsor of the compromise bill. The Senate approved it by a vote of 80 to 14.

The Senate bill must now be merged with legislation passed by the House, which would allow more aggressive and more widespread tree-cutting than approved by the Senate.

The legislation, a modified version of President Bush’s “healthy forest” initiative, calls for establishing expedited procedures for tree-thinning on 20 million acres of federal forests that are especially susceptible to fire threat and in many cases are close to populated areas.

The bill would authorize, subject to future appropriations, $760 million a year for forest management, more than double current spending. About half the money would be earmarked for forests situated in areas where wild lands merge with populated areas.

Environmentalists have criticized the legislation because it would allow forest-thinning without environmental reviews and with limited or no judicial review. They accused lawmakers of using the Western wildfires to open federal forests to new logging, including the cutting of mature trees.