Guest Column

With a name like the “Fix Our Forests Act,” it should be a good thing for forests, wildlife, and the environment, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case with H.R. 471, aka the Fix Our Forests Act. A more accurate name for this legislation would be the “Clearcut Our Public Lands Act.”

Proponents of the bill say it will reduce wildfire risk. A closer look at the actual text shows that it would significantly erode bedrock environmental protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and National Environmental Policy Act, remove science from land management decisions, eliminate public oversight across millions of acres of public lands, and may even make wildfires worse.

H.R. 471 could have devastating consequences for forests, endangered species, drinking water, and community safety. The bill ignores proven community protection measures like defensible space, emergency planning, and home hardening. Instead, it prioritizes giveaways to the logging industry, opening up millions of acres of public lands to reckless logging projects of up to 15 square miles in size. There are no strong sideboards on the types of logging practices allowed, and they could include extensive clearcutting and roadbuilding, severely degrading ecosystems. For comparison, these projects could be roughly half the size of the entire city of Bend. Our public lands deserve better protections.

This bill also:

• Minimizes the public’s input in public land management actions like logging on the Deschutes and many other National Forests.
• Reduces scientific review of the impacts logging would have on the climate, wildlife, and clean water.
• Makes it harder to hold agencies accountable in court when they violate environmental laws and regulations.
• Removes ESA requirements to consider new scientific information when it comes to light.

Oregon’s mature and old-growth forests are naturally fire-resistant. This is especially true for the old-growth ponderosa pine forests around central Oregon, which evolved with frequent fire. Large and old trees can also store vast amounts of carbon for centuries, making forests among our best natural climate solutions. Aggressively logging these forests only contributes to a hotter, drier world with more intense fire seasons and reduced natural resilience to fire.

More logging means more roadbuilding in our forests which spreads flammable weeds, disrupts sensitive soils, fragments wildlife habitat, causes more landslides and sedimentation of rivers and drinking water sources, and is linked to an increase in human-caused wildfires. As the density of logging roads increases, so do wildfire ignitions. The Deschutes National Forest already has over 8,500 miles of roads crossing it. More logging and more roads in these forests will only make fires worse, while exacerbating harm to our forests and native wildlife.

This is another example of industry and its congressional allies using ideas like “forest management” as a Trojan horse for weakening environmental laws to benefit their profits, not the public. Our forests provide important habitat for countless threatened and endangered species. They are the source of clean drinking water for Bend, Portland, Eugene, Salem, Medford, and many other communities across the U.S. We should be adding protections to our forests, not removing them.

Instead, Congress should focus on protecting communities from wildfire through legislation like the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act. This bill provides funding and empowers communities to implement science-based methods for reducing wildfire damage.

Unfortunately, Representatives Val Hoyle and Janelle Bynum from Oregon voted in favor of H.R. 471 and it recently passed the House. Now the bill is at risk of being fast-tracked through the Senate, with a real danger that this damaging piece of legislation ends up on Trump’s desk to be signed into law. It is now up to Senators Wyden and Merkley, and the rest of the Senate, to stand up for endangered species, science, community safety, bedrock environmental laws, and our public lands.

I encourage you to reach out to your Senators today and ask them to oppose this destructive bill.

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