Roberts releases emergency wildfire response bill for committee markup

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) released legislation for committee markup on Friday that would support emergency wildfire response capabilities and forest management activities.

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee is scheduled to markup Roberts’ Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act on Tuesday.

The bill is similar to the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015, H.R. 2647, which previously cleared the House of Representatives and was referred to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, which Roberts chairs, for consideration.

Roberts’ bill is a substitute amendment to the House bill that contains provisions that would reduce administrative burdens for federal land management agencies and provide more efficient collaboration on forest management practices.

Multiple industry groups have stepped forward to support Roberts’ Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act.

“We support provisions in the bill that fix the problem of account transfers (out of important recreation, wildlife and forest project accounts) when wildfire suppression costs exceed the appropriated amounts for the Forest Service and BLM,” the American Fisheries Society, American Sportfishing Association, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and more than 20 industry groups wrote in a letter of support of the bill.

The groups wrote that they “find much favor” with a Pilot Arbitration Program outlined in Roberts’ bill. The provision would provide a framework to resolve disputes about forest management projects.

“Along with the Forest Service, we support the use of alternative dispute resolution such as arbitration on a pilot basis to reduce the threat of litigation and provide greater efficiencies and incentives for collaborative forest management activities,” the groups wrote. “A pilot effort will allow appropriate evaluation and consideration of this alternative approach to expediting the delivery of on the ground forest conservation.”