Senate Introduces Damaging Senate Version of House Passed ‘Fix Our Forests Act’

Senator John Curtis (R-UT), along with Senators Tim Sheehy (R-MT), John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) today introduced a damaging Senate version of the House passed Fix Our Forests Act. Like the House bill, the Senate bill aims to open public lands to massive logging projects by rolling back bedrock conservation laws and disregarding science.  

“This ill-advised Senate bill unnecessarily sacrifices our forests and weakens the Endangered Species Act and other bedrock environmental laws” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife. “The sponsors are barking up the wrong tree. Despite some improvements over the House bill, the Senate bill still increases profits for the logging industry under the guise of preventing wildfires and cedes authority to ramp up logging to the Administration. This misplaced trust will allow agencies to sacrifice old growth fire-resistant trees and critical protections for imperiled species. Instead, the sponsors of this measure should pursue legislation that would more effectively address the problem and fund projects in the wildland-urban interface for home hardening and defensible space.”

Among the most egregious provisions, the bill would:  

Overturn Cottonwood, the ESA legal precedent which affirmed that the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management must reinitiate consultation on a forest or land management plan when a new species is listed, critical habitat is designated, or new information that may affect a species or habitat is revealed. This commonsense obligation is important to look at the big picture and avoid extinction by 1,000 cuts.

Shorten the statute of limitations to challenge projects in court from six years in most instances to 150 days. The start date for this extremely abbreviated period is also unclear and runs from notice of intent to carry out the project, not final agency action. This shortened timeline will bar many from exercising their right to be heard in court and block communities’ attempts to protect wildlife.

Potentially Create Confusion by Codifying ESA and NEPA Emergency Regulations that Already Exist. The bill would codify emergency regulations. Because those regulations are already available, this could create confusion as to its meaning or intent.  

Expand the size of multiple NEPA categorical exclusions to 10,000 acres, weakening the environmental review process for logging projects which include massive swaths of forest. This will incentivize the logging of large, old growth trees, which are not only the most fire-resilient, but also key habitat for wildlife.

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