HEARING TO REVIEW THE 2015 FIRE SEASON AND LONG-TERM TRENDS HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION OCTOBER 8, 2015 Serial No. 114–30 ( Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture agriculture.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 97–183 PDF WASHINGTON : 2016 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Mar 15 2010 11:05 Feb 16, 2016 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 P:\DOCS\114-30\97183.TXT BRIAN COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, Texas, Chairman RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas, COLLIN C. PETERSON, Minnesota, Ranking Vice Chairman Minority Member BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia DAVID SCOTT, Georgia FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma JIM COSTA, California STEVE KING, Iowa TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota MIKE ROGERS, Alabama MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania JAMES P. MCGOVERN, Massachusetts BOB GIBBS, Ohio SUZAN K. DELBENE, Washington AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia FILEMON VELA, Texas ERIC A. ‘‘RICK’’ CRAWFORD, Arkansas MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire CHRISTOPHER P. GIBSON, New York RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois DAN BENISHEK, Michigan SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York JEFF DENHAM, California ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona DOUG LAMALFA, California PETE AGUILAR, California RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands TED S. YOHO, Florida ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina JACKIE WALORSKI, Indiana GWEN GRAHAM, Florida RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia BRAD ASHFORD, Nebraska MIKE BOST, Illinois DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana JOHN R. MOOLENAAR, Michigan DAN NEWHOUSE, Washington TRENT KELLY, Mississippi SCOTT C. GRAVES, Staff Director ROBERT L. LAREW, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania, Chairman FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico, STEVE KING, Iowa Ranking Minority Member SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire CHRISTOPHER P. GIBSON, New York RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota DAN BENISHEK, Michigan SUZAN K. DELBENE, Washington RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona MIKE BOST, Illinois (II) VerDate Mar 15 2010 11:05 Feb 16, 2016 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 P:\DOCS\114-30\97183.TXT BRIAN C O N T E N T S Page DelBene, Hon. Suzan K., a Representative in Congress from Washington, submitted report ................................................................................................... 73 Lujan Grisham, Hon. Michelle, a Representative in Congress from New Mex- ico, opening statement ......................................................................................... 4 Newhouse, Hon. Dan, a Representative in Congress from Washington, sub- mitted letter .......................................................................................................... 87 Thompson, Hon. Glenn, a Representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, opening statement ................................................................................................ 1 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 3 WITNESSES Tidwell, Thomas L., Chief, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agri- culture, Washington, D.C. ................................................................................... 6 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 Submitted questions ......................................................................................... 88 Haeberle, Rod, Owner, Haeberle Ranch, Okanogan, WA ..................................... 30 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 32 Topik, Ph.D., Christopher, Director, Restoring America’s Forests, North America Region, The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA ............................... 44 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 46 Litzenberg, Erik J., Fire Chief, Santa Fe Fire Department, Santa Fe, NM; on behalf of International Association of Fire Chiefs ....................................... 54 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 55 Priddy, (Ret.), COL Ronald N., Director of Government Affairs, 10 Tanker Air Carrier, Albuquerque, NM ............................................................................ 58 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 59 (III) VerDate Mar 15 2010 11:05 Feb 16, 2016 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 P:\DOCS\114-30\97183.TXT BRIAN VerDate Mar 15 2010 11:05 Feb 16, 2016 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 P:\DOCS\114-30\97183.TXT BRIAN HEARING TO REVIEW THE 2015 FIRE SEASON AND LONG-TERM TRENDS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2015 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY, COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 1302 of the Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Glenn Thomp- son [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. Members present: Representatives Thompson, Lucas, Benishek, Allen, Bost, Newhouse, Lujan Grisham, Kuster, Nolan, DelBene, Kirkpatrick, Costa, and Aguilar. Staff present: Haley Graves, Josh Maxwell, Mollie Wilken, Patri- cia Straughn, Skylar Sowder, Stephanie Addison, Faisal Siddiqui, Evan Jurkovich, Lisa Shelton, Liz Friedlander, Matthew Mac- Kenzie, Nicole Scott, and Carly Reedholm OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GLENN THOMPSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA The CHAIRMAN. Good morning, everyone. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, to review the 2015 fire season and long-term trends, will come to order. We will open with some opening statements. Good morning again, and welcome to today’s hearing of the Con- servation and Forestry Subcommittee to review the 2015 fire sea- son and the long-term trends. This year, western states, including Alaska, have experienced yet another catastrophic fire season with over 9 million acres burned to date. Now, this continues an alarming trend where the average number of acres burned each year has nearly doubled since the 1990s. As such, the amount that the government spends on sup- pressing these wildfires has also doubled, while the dollars Con- gress has allotted for fighting these fires have remained nearly the same. When the fire-suppression funding falls short, the financial bur- den falls on the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to cover firefighting costs from their non-fire budgets. Now, these fire transfers are halting the programs and activities that promote forest health and hazardous fuels reduction, and it is impacting local Forest Service personnel nationwide. This year alone, over 50 percent of the Forest Service budget has gone towards wildfire sup- pression, and the USDA expects this figure to grow. (1) VerDate Mar 15 2010 11:05 Feb 16, 2016 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 P:\DOCS\114-30\97183.TXT BRIAN 2 To many, the solution seems simple: Congress should allot more funding for fire suppression. However, that is not necessarily the only solution. While the budget and the fire-suppression funding are issues that must be addressed, we must also look at the culture of how we have been managing our National Forests. Forest Serv- ice decisions have significant consequences, and we must make sure that policies are in place to keep our forests healthy. Healthy forests require active management, in the form of me- chanical thinning, prescribed fires, and other activities, to ensure that they do not become overgrown tinderboxes. Healthy National Forests are more sustainable for generations to come, due to de- creased risk of catastrophic fires and invasive species outbreaks. Unfortunately, much of our National Forest System is unhealthy. In fact, Forest Service staff has identified up to 1⁄4 of the 193 mil- lion acres of the National Forest System as ‘‘wildfire at risk.’’ As I mentioned earlier, it is true that the number of acres burned have doubled in recent years compared to the 1990s. How- ever, over the same time, the number of forest fires has stayed con- stant, or in some years, even declined. Our National Forests are facing an epidemic of declining health, which is in direct correla- tion to the policies that have led to a dramatic decrease in man- aged acres. The Forest Service has drastically reduced timber har- vest from almost 13 billion board feet in the late 1980s to only 3 billion board feet of timber in recent years. And it is no wonder that the number of acres affected by catastrophic wildfires has dou- bled. This loss of forestland could potentially increase, especially if we do not find a comprehensive solution to this problem. The Agricultural Act of 2014 provided the tools for the Forest Service to successfully manage our National Forests. These provi- sions allow for expedited planning for projects, and it reauthorizes programs to allow the Forest Service to streamline projects, such as timber sales and restoration projects,