Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2491 To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 2, 2019 Mr. GALLEGO (for himself, Ms. HAALAND, Ms. GABBARD, Ms. MOORE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. PAPPAS, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. SOTO, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. COHEN, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. TONKO, Mr. SIRES, Mr. MCGOV- ERN, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. CASTEN of Illinois, Mr. PRICE of North Caro- lina, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. POCAN, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. BROWNLEY of California, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. DEGETTE, and Mr. CASE) intro- duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agri- culture, and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com- mittee concerned A BILL To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System. 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 04:02 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2491.IH H2491 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 2491 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Roadless Area Con- 2 servation Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Congress finds that— 5 (1) there is a compelling need to establish na- 6 tional protection for inventoried roadless areas of the 7 National Forest System in order to protect the 8 unique social and ecological values of those irreplace- 9 able resources; 10 (2) roadless areas protect healthy watersheds 11 and the numerous benefits of healthy watersheds, 12 which include— 13 (A) providing the setting for many forms 14 of outdoor recreation; 15 (B) ensuring a supply of clean water for 16 domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses; 17 (C) providing drinking water to tens of 18 millions of citizens of the United States; and 19 (D) helping maintain abundant and 20 healthy fish and wildlife populations and habi- 21 tats; 22 (3) maintaining roadless areas in a relatively 23 undisturbed condition— 24 (A) saves downstream communities mil- 25 lions of dollars in water filtration costs; and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2491.IH H2491 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 2491 IH (B) is crucial to preserve the flow of af- 1 fordable, clean water to a growing population; 2 (4) the protection of roadless areas can main- 3 tain biological strongholds and refuges for many im- 4 periled species by halting the ongoing fragmentation 5 of the landscape into smaller and smaller parcels of 6 land divided by road corridors; 7 (5) roadless areas conserve native biodiversity 8 by serving as a bulwark against the spread of non- 9 native invasive species; 10 (6) roadless areas provide important backcoun- 11 try fish and game habitat, creating opportunities for 12 hunting and commercial and sport fishing; 13 (7) roadless areas provide unparalleled opportu- 14 nities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camp- 15 ing, picnicking, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, 16 cross-country skiing, canoeing, mountain-biking, and 17 similar activities; 18 (8) while roadless areas may have many wilder- 19 ness-like attributes, unlike wilderness areas, the use 20 of mechanized means of travel is allowed in many 21 roadless areas; 22 (9) roadless areas contain many sites sacred to 23 Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and other groups 24 that use roadless areas for spiritual and religious 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2491.IH H2491 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 2491 IH practices and access, including customary and tradi- 1 tional uses and activities; 2 (10) from the inception of Federal land man- 3 agement, the mission of the Forest Service has been 4 to manage the National Forest System for multiple 5 uses, including resource utilization, conservation, 6 and other uses; 7 (11) consistent with the multiple-use mission 8 described in paragraph (10), this Act— 9 (A) ensures the continued protection of so- 10 cial and ecological values, while allowing for 11 many multiple uses of inventoried roadless 12 areas; and 13 (B) does not impose any new limitations 14 on— 15 (i) inventoried roadless areas; or 16 (ii) the use of, or access to, National 17 Forest System, State, or private land out- 18 side inventoried roadless areas; 19 (12) enacting a law for the protection of inven- 20 toried roadless areas— 21 (A) provides additional reliability to areas 22 with recreation-based economies that depend on 23 public land without roads for jobs, revenue, and 24 consumer spending; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2491.IH H2491 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 2491 IH (B) encourages forest managers to con- 1 tinue giving priority to conducting fuel reduc- 2 tion treatments in the areas in which the treat- 3 ments will have the most impact; 4 (13) wildfires are almost twice as likely to occur 5 in roaded areas as in roadless areas, because road- 6 less areas are generally located further away from 7 communities and are harder to access; 8 (14) the Forest Service has an enormous back- 9 log of maintenance needs for the existing 371,581- 10 mile road system of the Forest Service that will cost 11 $3,200,000,000 to eliminate; and 12 (15) continued protection of roadless areas will 13 continue to allow for the development of hydropower 14 projects. 15 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to provide, 16 within the context of multiple-use management, lasting 17 protection for inventoried roadless areas within the Na- 18 tional Forest System. 19 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 20 In this Act: 21 (1) INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREA.—The term 22 ‘‘inventoried roadless area’’ means any area in which 23 road construction, road reconstruction, or logging is 24 subject to regulation under the Roadless Rule. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2491.IH H2491 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 2491 IH (2) ROADLESS RULE.—The term ‘‘Roadless 1 Rule’’ means part 294 of title 36, Code of Federal 2 Regulations, as adopted on January 12, 2001, and 3 modified for Idaho on October 16, 2008, and for 4 Colorado on July 3, 2012, and December 19, 2016. 5 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 6 the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 7 Chief of the Forest Service. 8 SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREAS. 9 The Secretary shall not allow road construction, road 10 reconstruction, or logging in an inventoried roadless area 11 where those activities are prohibited by the Roadless Rule. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2491.IH H2491 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS