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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
legislation → propose → Republicans
However, the traditional Democratic coalition of environmental groups is split over the role humanity has to play in forest management.
asserted
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.
asserted
that → argue → 80s
Others argue that humans have a responsibility to intervene — an increasingly popular idea as climate change threatens ecosystems around the world.
asserted
change → argue → world
Among the major environmental groups that oppose the legislation are the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
“
asserted
wildfires → voice → communities
We do advocacy at a twofold level.
asserted
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.
asserted
Cashwell → do → Conservancy
Right now, that good work needs to “meet the moment in the current wildfire crisis.
asserted
work → need → crisis
That sentiment appears to have motivated Western lawmakers in particular.
asserted
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.
asserted
half → vote → country
Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favor.
asserted
Republicans → vote → favor
The legislation is now awaiting a final vote in the Senate.
asserted
legislation → await → Senate
Congress has until Jan. 3, 2027, to pass it.
asserted
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.
asserted
who → say → bill
“Oftentimes, they’re irreversibly devastating ecosystems and watersheds.”
asserted
they → devastate → ecosystems
“So,” he said, “ the status quo is clearly not working.”
asserted
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).
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
two → introduce → something
“I knew right away that this could be a gateway to talking about permit reform,” Peters said.
uncertain
Peters → know → reform
So, “we started working on a bigger, nationwide reform of forestry practices which have been really, really clogged up.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
California → lose → state
U.S. Forest Service efforts to resuscitate these ecosystems have failed to keep pace.
asserted
efforts → resuscitate → pace
In recent years, the agency has reforested only about 1% of woodlands that are unlikely to recover on their own.
asserted
that → reforest → own
Californian supporters of the Fix Our Forests Act argue the problem has more to do with permitting delays than finances.
asserted
problem → argue → finances
Rep. George Whitesides (D-Santa Clarita), who co-sponsored the Fix Our Forests Act
asserted
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.
asserted
that → point → bulldozers
For prescribed burns, it takes more than seven years on average.
asserted
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.”
asserted
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.
asserted
they → exempt → acres
It also would limit the window during which environmental groups can sue over project approvals.
asserted
groups → limit → approvals
…and 20 more, not listed.
