HR 4664 - DIGEST

     Supports a cohesive intergovernmental strategy at all levels for the purpose of protecting the integrity and posterity of our forests and wildlands, wildlife habitat, watershed, air quality, human health and safety, and private property and to reduce the overabundance of forest fuels that place these resources at high risk of catastrophic wildfire.

     Supports the use of an appropriate mix of fire suppression activities and forest management methodologies, including selective thinning, selective harvesting, grazing, the removal of excessive ground fuels, and small-scale prescribed burns, including increased private, local, and state contracts for prefire-treatments on public forest lands and more effective fire suppression in public forest lands through increased funding of mutual aid agreements with professional state and local public fire fighting agencies.

     Supports a national prescribed fire strategy for public lands that promotes forest protection and rural community safety, creates a process for evaluation of worst case scenarios for risk of escape, identifies alternatives that will achieve the land management objectives while minimizing the risk and use of prescribed fire, and is incorporated into regulatory land use planning programs that propose the use of prescribed fire as a management practice.