A sweeping bipartisan bill that seeks to prevent catastrophic wildfires and restore fire-ravaged forests has revealed a schism in the nation’s environmental movement as some conservation advocates find themselves allied with a longtime foe: loggers.
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themselves → seek → foe
The Fix Our Forests Act, which Congress is close to passing, aims to speed up forest management projects on public and tribal lands by reducing regulatory and legal hurdles.
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Congress → pass → hurdles
The proposed legislation comes at a time of increasingly devastating wildfires and has garnered wide support among Republicans and the timber industry.
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legislation → propose → Republicans
However, the traditional Democratic coalition of environmental groups is split over the role humanity has to play in forest management.
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humanity → split → management
Some argue ecosystems are best protected when humans leave them alone — a view that dominated during the timber wars of the ’80s and ’90s.
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that → argue → 80s
Others argue that humans have a responsibility to intervene — an increasingly popular idea as climate change threatens ecosystems around the world.
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change → argue → world
Among the major environmental groups that oppose the legislation are the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity.
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Club → oppose → Diversity
They worry that limiting environmental review and litigation will allow timber companies to heavily log these areas instead of gently thinning them.
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companies → worry → them
Meanwhile, some Southern California groups worry the bill would allow well-meaning land managers to approve misguided projects that ultimately harm local shrublands, which have a very different relationship with fire than the bill’s namesake, forests.
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which → worry → namesake
California lawmakers passed laws that would ensure insurance companies provide better coverage for smoke-damaged homes and financing for upgrades protecting residences from future fire damage.
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companies → pass → damage
“It’s really handing the keys to the Trump administration to be able to push forward a lot of their timber agenda,” said Anna Medema, deputy legislative director for forests and public lands at the Sierra Club.
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Medema → hand → Club
But the Nature Conservancy and other groups have voiced support for the bill, citing the constant and imminent threat that increasingly severe wildfires pose to communities and ecosystems.
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wildfires → voice → communities
We do advocacy at a twofold level.
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We → do → level
We are doing defensive work to fight back against bad things, and we’re also trying to promote the good things that are happening on the ground,” said Morgan Cashwell, North America director of legislative affairs for the Nature Conservancy.
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Cashwell → do → Conservancy
Right now, that good work needs to “meet the moment in the current wildfire crisis.
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work → need → crisis
That sentiment appears to have motivated Western lawmakers in particular.
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sentiment → appear → lawmakers
In the House of Representatives, roughly half of the Democrats from Western states voted for the bill, compared to about a quarter of Democrats from elsewhere in the country.
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half → vote → country
Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favor.
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Republicans → vote → favor
The legislation is now awaiting a final vote in the Senate.
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legislation → await → Senate
Congress has until Jan. 3, 2027, to pass it.
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Congress → have → it
“Wildfires today are very different than wildfires from a generation ago,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who co-introduced the Senate version of the bill.
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who → say → bill
“Oftentimes, they’re irreversibly devastating ecosystems and watersheds.”
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they → devastate → ecosystems
“So,” he said, “ the status quo is clearly not working.”
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quo → say → ?
The act was born when Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), a former forester, stole a seat on a plane next to Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego).
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Westerman → bear → Peters
He used the opportunity to talk Peters’ ear off about a beloved species of tree that is under threat from worsening wildfires: the giant sequoia.
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that → use → wildfires
The two introduced a bill to protect them, called the Save Our Sequoias Act, and quickly saw an opportunity for something bigger.
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two → introduce → something
“I knew right away that this could be a gateway to talking about permit reform,” Peters said.
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Peters → know → reform
So, “we started working on a bigger, nationwide reform of forestry practices which have been really, really clogged up.
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which → start → practices
While California grasslands, shrublands and woodlands are adapted to different frequencies and intensities of wildfire, research has found that high-severity fires — which kill the vast majority of trees in their path — are scorching 30 times more land area than in the 1980s.
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which → adapt → 1980s
The California Board of Forestry approved ‘Zone Zero’ regulations outlining what residents in fire-prone areas can plant, build and store near their homes.
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residents → approve → homes
The result: California is losing, on average, more than 200,000 acres of forest every year — or roughly 2.5% of all woodlands in the state every decade.
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California → lose → state
U.S. Forest Service efforts to resuscitate these ecosystems have failed to keep pace.
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efforts → resuscitate → pace
In recent years, the agency has reforested only about 1% of woodlands that are unlikely to recover on their own.
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that → reforest → own
Californian supporters of the Fix Our Forests Act argue the problem has more to do with permitting delays than finances.
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problem → argue → finances
Rep. George Whitesides (D-Santa Clarita), who co-sponsored the Fix Our Forests Act
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who → co → Act
pointed to nonpartisan research that found it takes the Forest Service more than five years on average to complete a full environmental review and begin work on forest thinning projects that use mechanical equipment like bulldozers and wood chippers.
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that → point → bulldozers
For prescribed burns, it takes more than seven years on average.
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it → prescribe → years
“That’s insane,” he said, that it “takes as long as a kid growing up to be a first grader to be able to move on this.”
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it → ’ → this
The Fix Our Forests Act would exempt projects from the full permitting process if they were in areas with the most extreme fire risk and would expand existing exemptions for projects under 3,000 acres to cover projects up to 10,000 acres.
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they → exempt → acres
It also would limit the window during which environmental groups can sue over project approvals.
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groups → limit → approvals
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
