WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper’s bipartisan “Fix Our Forests Act” advanced out of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry this week after an 18-5 vote, with Sen. Michael Bennet voting “no” on the legislation.
The bill is aimed at improving forest health and wildfire resilience by expediting forest management projects. The House version passed earlier this year but has been stalled in the Senate.
Bennet serves on the committee and expressed opposition to the bill.
“Colorado’s national forests underpin our economy and Western way of life. They protect critical water supplies, support agriculture and outdoor recreation, and sustain diverse wildlife habitats,” Bennet said in a statement.
Bennet said many Coloradans have voiced concerns about the current version of the Fix Our Forests Act, including that it eliminates opportunities for public and tribal participation and limits the ability of communities to ensure projects follow the law.
“Tribes and local communities are crucial partners for forestry projects in Colorado, and their early engagement in project development often accelerates projects, rather than slows them down,” Bennet said. “As I have said from Day 1, their voices must be included in this process.”
Bennet is also concerned about the wildfire crisis in the West. He wants the Forest Service to be fully funded, instead of the reduction in workforce that the service has seen since January. He said the Fix Our Forests Act does not provide resources to implement wildfire risk reduction projects or restore land management agency staff.
The Sierra Club national chapter released a statement opposing the bill’s advancement. The grassroots environmental group said the bill claims to address wildfires, but instead enables timber companies to increase logging activities in national forests. The bill includes provisions that would increase the cutting of old-growth and mature trees, weaken environmental protection laws, including the Endangered Species Act, and limit public input and judicial oversight of logging projects in national forests.
“It’s more than telling that Congressional Republicans are focusing on a handout to the timber industry instead of reopening the government,” said Anna Medema, Sierra Club’s associate director of legislative and administrative advocacy for forests and public lands. “Critical public services are running out of funding, federal workers are missing paychecks, but the Trump administration and its allies can find the time to advance a bill giving logging CEOs free rein in our national forests. If they were interested in doing what’s best for our national forests, Congressional Republicans would re-open the government and fund the Forest Service. Instead, they’re trying to sneak through a favor to their allies in the timber industry.”
Durango resident Dan King, vice-chair of the Southwest Colorado chapter of Sierra Club, echoed the national chapter’s stance, saying the group “absolutely opposes” the bill.
“Our administration, not so much Colorado state government but the federal administration, is trying to forget about the fact that we’re in a climate crisis, so we see that in the West when it comes to fire and water impacts and they're interrelated,” King said in an interview with The Durango Herald.
King said thinning forests doesn’t necessarily make them healthy. He is also concerned about bypassing environmental review and weakening provisions for already existing laws, like the Endangered Species Act. However, with the right review and adjustments, the bill could be supported by the Sierra Club and other groups and residents, he said.
“If you want healthy forests, you need to have good science. You need to rely on that science. And so if I saw more of that in the Fix Our Forests Act, I think that’d be great,” King said. “There’s plusses in the act, but there's more minuses than plusses and that’s why we as a Southwest Sierra Club group stand with the national group, as well, in saying that the Fix Our Forests Act as written is not the best kind of policy we’d like to see.”
Bennet said he remains committed to working bipartisanly to improve the bill and hopes to support the bill when it comes before the full Senate – if changes are implemented.
Hickenlooper, on the other hand, “cheered” the committee passage of the bill as “one of the most significant steps forward in federal wildfire policy in recent decades.”
“There is a wildfire crisis across much of the country – our communities need action now,” he said in a statement. “Wildfires won’t wait. After bipartisan committee passage, the next step is a full Senate vote. The Fix Our Forests Act will make our communities and environment more resilient.”
King said he trusts there’s a strong message coming out of Southwest Colorado against the current Fix Our Forests Act.
“These are the front lines of so many environmental public lands challenges and we have the ability as citizens to stand up, educate ourselves, keep our elected officials accountable and provide a better place for future generations,” King said.
Abigail Hatting is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ahatting@durangoherald.com.
