Passage of Resilient Federal Forests Act

Press Release:

For the fifth time in five years, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) voted to pass legislation to improve federal forest management and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires that ravage Oregon and much of the West every year. The Resilient Federal Forests Act (H.R. 2936), which Walden helped craft, addresses the growing economic and environmental threats of catastrophic wildfire that scorched over 678,000 acres of land across Oregon this year. 

“My intensity on this issue is almost that of the fires we fight,” said Walden. “We can reduce the size and intensity of fire up to 70 percent, if we do the kinds of projects that thin out the forests and allow us to better manage and be better stewards of our federal forests that are contemplated as a result of this legislation.” 

Walden has led the call to action on forest management reform following a historic wildfire season in Oregon and across much of the West. The Resilient Federal Forests Act will bring proper management to federal lands in Oregon to improve the health and resiliency of forests, and reduce the unnatural fuel loads that increase the threat of devastating wildfires.

“In Oregon, this bill would take away an arbitrary prohibition on harvesting trees over 21 inches in diameter that’s tied the hands of forest managers,” continued Walden. “We clarify the timber production mandates of the unique O&C lands in southern and western Oregon to deliver the underlying statute and actually have it enforced. And when fires do happen, we would exchange this for a new, healthy forest and grow green trees that sequester carbon and restore a landscape that we in the West so enjoy,” concluded Walden, holding a jar of ash to illustrate the effects of catastrophic fires that Oregonians endure each summer.

The Resilient Federal Forests Act passed the House on a bipartisan vote, and now awaits action in the Senate. For more information on this legislation, please click here.

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