National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3442 To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an empha- sis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 20, 2021 Ms. SCHRIER (for herself, Mr. SIMPSON, and Mr. SCHRADER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, Energy and Com- merce, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with- in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of pre- scribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3442 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 2 ‘‘National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021’’. 3 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 4 this Act is as follows: 5 Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Findings. Sec. 3. Definitions. TITLE I—USE OF FUNDS Sec. 101. Prescribed fire accounts. Sec. 102. Policies and practices. Sec. 103. Collaborative prescribed fire program. Sec. 104. Large cross-boundary prescribed fire incentive program. TITLE II—FACILITATING IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTREACH Sec. 201. Cooperative agreements and contracts. Sec. 202. Human resources. Sec. 203. Liability of certified prescribed fire managers. Sec. 204. Environmental review. Sec. 205. Prescribed fire education program. TITLE III—REPORTING; TERMINATION Sec. 301. Annual reports to the National Fire Planning and Operations Data- base. Sec. 302. Termination date. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds that— 7 (1) in 2018, the Forest Service Fire Modeling 8 Institute determined that 63,070,000 acres of Na- 9 tional Forest System land and 171,200,000 acres of 10 other forest land were at high or very high risk of 11 experiencing a wildfire that would be difficult to sup- 12 press; 13 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3442 IH (2) according to the National Interagency Co- 1 ordination Center, between 2009 and 2018, in the 2 United States, on average— 3 (A) 67,000 wildfires burned 7,000,000 4 acres annually; and 5 (B) 86,345 prescribed fires burned only 6 3,000,000 acres annually; 7 (3) indigenous communities have used con- 8 trolled burns to manage landscapes since time imme- 9 morial; 10 (4) according to the National Interagency Co- 11 ordination Center, the annual cost of suppressing 12 wildfires in a State with an active prescribed burn- 13 ing program is less than 1 percent of the annual 14 cost of suppressing wildfires in a State without an 15 active prescribed burning program, despite each 16 State having the same number of wildfires; 17 (5) according to a 2017 study published in the 18 Journal of Forestry, on a given acre, a prescribed 19 fire burning in April or May produces less than 1⁄5 20 of the smoke emissions of a wildfire that would burn 21 on that acre in August; 22 (6) according to a 2019 study conducted by 23 Stanford University, smoke from prescribed fires ex- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3442 IH poses children to fewer negative health effects than 1 the detrimental smoke generated by wildfires; 2 (7) according to a 2015 study published in 3 Ecology, trees that have not been burnt by a low-in- 4 tensity fire are unusually prone to bark beetle at- 5 tacks, and between 2000 and 2010, bark beetles 6 killed the majority of trees on 32,000,000 acres of 7 the 193,000,000 acres of National Forest System 8 land; 9 (8) as of September 30, 2019, there were— 10 (A) 37 prescribed fire councils in 33 11 States; and 12 (B) 64 prescribed burn associations in 11 13 States; 14 (9) according to the 2018 National Prescribed 15 Fire Use Survey Report— 16 (A) 37 States regulate prescribed fires by 17 issuing burn permits; 18 (B) 23 States offer prescribed burn man- 19 ager certification courses to facilitate respon- 20 sible burning on private land; 21 (C) only 5 States (Vermont, Massachu- 22 setts, Missouri, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) 23 lack laws to reduce liability associated with the 24 responsible use of prescribed fire; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3442 IH (D) only 8 States (Florida, Montana, Ne- 1 vada, Colorado, Michigan, Georgia, South Caro- 2 lina, and Washington) have laws that use a 3 standard of gross negligence for determining li- 4 abilities for the responsible use of prescribed 5 fire; and 6 (10) as of September 30, 2019, 31 States have 7 a formal process to track the number of acres treat- 8 ed for forestry purposes using prescribed fire. 9 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 10 In this Act: 11 (1) FEDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 12 means— 13 (A) public land (as defined in section 103 14 of the Federal Land Policy and Management 15 Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702)); 16 (B) units of the National Park System; 17 (C) units of the National Wildlife Refuge 18 System; 19 (D) land held in trust by the United States 20 for the benefit of Indian Tribes or members of 21 an Indian Tribe; and 22 (E) land in the National Forest System. 23 (2) NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM.—The term 24 ‘‘National Forest System’’ has the meaning given 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3442 IH the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Range- 1 land Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 2 U.S.C. 1609(a)). 3 (3) PRESCRIBED FIRE.—The term ‘‘prescribed 4 fire’’ means a fire deliberately ignited to burn 5 wildland fuels in a natural or modified state— 6 (A) under specified environmental condi- 7 tions that allow the fire to be confined to a pre- 8 determined area and produce the fireline inten- 9 sity and rate of spread required to attain 10 planned resource management objectives; and 11 (B) in accordance with applicable law, in- 12 cluding applicable regulations. 13 (4) SECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 14 means— 15 (A) the Secretary; and 16 (B) the Secretary of Agriculture. 17 (5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 18 the Secretary of the Interior. 19 TITLE I—USE OF FUNDS 20 SEC. 101. PRESCRIBED FIRE ACCOUNTS. 21 (a) DEFINITION OF SECRETARY CONCERNED.—In 22 this section, the term ‘‘Secretary concerned’’ means— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 3442 IH (1) the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to 1 an account established by this section for the De- 2 partment of Agriculture; and 3 (2) the Secretary, with respect to an account 4 established by this section for the Department of the 5 Interior. 6 (b) ESTABLISHMENT OF ACCOUNTS.—There are es- 7 tablished in the Treasury of the United States the fol- 8 lowing accounts: 9 (1) The Prescribed Fire account for the De- 10 partment of Agriculture. 11 (2) The Prescribed Fire account for the De- 12 partment of the Interior. 13 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 14 are authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2022 and 15 each fiscal year thereafter for the accounts established by 16 subsection (b) such sums as are necessary to carry out 17 this section, not to exceed $300,000,000. 18 (d) PRESIDENTIAL BUDGET REQUESTS.—For fiscal 19 year 2023 and each fiscal year thereafter, each Secretary 20 concerned shall submit, through the budget request of the 21 President, a request for amounts in the Wildland Fire 22 Management appropriation account of the Secretary con- 23 cerned to carry out the activities described in subsection 24 (e). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 3442 IH (e) AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES.—The Secretary con- 1 cerned shall use amounts in the accounts established by 2 subsection (b) as follows: 3 (1) The Secretary concerned shall— 4 (A) develop a prescribed fire plan, carry 5 out necessary environmental review, conduct 6 outreach to the public, Indian Tribes, and adja- 7 cent landowners, and implement a prescribed 8 fire on Federal land; 9 (B) hire additional personnel and procure 10 additional equipment, including unmanned aer- 11 ial systems equipped with an aerial ignition sys- 12 tem, to implement a greater number of pre- 13 scribed fires; 14 (C) provide training for the implementa- 15 tion of a prescribed fire; 16 (D) conduct post-prescribed fire activities, 17 including reseeding to prevent the spread of 18 invasive species; and 19 (E) conduct monitoring for safety and fire 20 effects. 21 (2) The Secretaries shall coordinate to jointly 22 develop a common data management and analysis 23 system for planning and post-treatment account- 24 ability. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 3442 IH (3) The Secretary concerned may assist State, 1 Tribal, local government, or private prescribed fire 2 programs— 3 (A) to provide federally sponsored insur- 4 ance administered by States, in conjunction 5 with State-sponsored training and certification 6 programs, for private persons implementing 7 prescribed fires; 8 (B) to establish a training or certification 9 program for teams comprised of citizens or 10 local fire services to conduct prescribed fires on 11 private land, consistent with any standards de- 12 veloped by the National Wildfire Coordinating 13 Group or State prescribed fire standards; 14 (C) to enable additional fire managers and 15 apparatus, whether provided by the local re- 16 sources of an agency, private contractors, non- 17 governmental organizations, Indian Tribes, local 18 fire services, or qualified individuals, to be 19 present while implementing a prescribed fire; 20 (D) pursuant to the memorandum of 21 agreement authorized under section 203; or 22 (E) to finance the implementation of a pre- 23 scribed fire on State, Tribal, or private land 24 and any post-prescribed fire activities as are de- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 3442 IH termined to be necessary by the Secretary con- 1 cerned. 2 (4) The Secretary concerned may provide tech- 3 nical or financial assistance to a prescribed fire 4 council or prescribed burn association for the estab- 5 lishment or operation of the council or association. 6 (5) The Secretary may provide funding for the 7 collaborative prescribed fire program established 8 under section 103. 9 (6) The Secretary may provide funding for the 10 large cross-boundary prescribed fire program estab- 11 lished under section 104. 12 (f) PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDING.— 13 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 14 the Secretary concerned shall coordinate with Fed- 15 eral, State, and local agencies, Indian Tribes, and 16 qualified nongovernmental organizations, including 17 through the Wildland Fire Leadership Council, to 18 establish prioritization criteria for expending funds 19 under this section for each activity described in sub- 20 section (e). 21 (2) REQUIREMENT.—In establishing criteria 22 under paragraph (1), the Secretary concerned shall 23 give priority to a project that is— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 3442 IH (A) implemented across a large contiguous 1 area; 2 (B) cross-boundary in nature; 3 (C) in an area that is threatening to, or lo- 4 cated in, the wildland-urban interface; 5 (D) in an area identified as a priority area 6 in a statewide forest resource assessment; 7 (E) on acres at high or very high risk of 8 experiencing a wildfire that would be difficult to 9 suppress; 10 (F) in an area that is designated as critical 11 habitat and in need of ecological restoration or 12 enhancement; or 13 (G) supportive of potential operational de- 14 lineations or a strategic response zone. 15 SEC. 102. POLICIES AND PRACTICES. 16 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretaries shall significantly 17 increase the number and size of prescribed fires conducted 18 on Federal land. 19 (b) USE OF FUNDS FOR PRESCRIBED FIRES.—From 20 amounts appropriated to carry out the activity described 21 in section 101(e)(1), the Secretaries may carry out pre- 22 scribed fires on not more than 20,000,000 acres of Fed- 23 eral land per year. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Jul 07, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3442.IH H3442 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 3442 IH (c) REQUIRING MINIMUM ACREAGE.—Subject to the 1 availability of appropriations, the Secretaries shall carry 2 out prescribed fires annually on at least 1,000,000 acres 3 of Federal land. 4 (d) INCREASE IN FAMILIARITY WITH PRESCRIBED 5 FIRES IN LOCAL UNITS.—Subject to the availability of 6 appropriations, not later than September 30, 2023, the 7 Secretaries shall each have carried out a minimum of 1 8 prescribed fire on each unit of the National Forest Sys- 9 tem, unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, unit of 10 the National Park System, and Bureau of Land Manage- 11 ment district under the jurisdiction of the Secretaries— 12 (1) that includes an area that— 13 (A) has a historical low-severity fire re- 14 gime; 15 (B) has a historical fire-return interval of 16 not more than 35 years; and 17 (C) is larger than 100 acres; and 18 (2) less than 50 percent of the land of which 19 was burned by a wildland fire during the previous 20 10-year period. 21 SEC. 103. COLLABORATIVE PRESCRIBED FIRE PROGRAM. 22 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secre [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]