118 STAT. 1204 PUBLIC LAW 108–317—OCT. 5, 2004 Public Law 108–317 108th Congress An Act To establish Institutes to demonstrate and promote the use of adaptive ecosystem management to reduce the risk of wildfires, and restore the health of fire adapted forest and woodland ecosystems of the interior West. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004’’. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds that— (1) there is an increasing threat of wildfire to millions of acres of forest land and rangeland throughout the United States; (2) forest land and rangeland are degraded as a direct consequence of land management practices, including practices to control and prevent wildfires and the failure to harvest subdominant trees from overstocked stands that disrupt the occurrence of frequent low intensity fires that have periodically removed flammable undergrowth; (3) at least 39,000,000 acres of land of the National Forest System in the interior West are at high risk of wildfire; (4) an average of 95 percent of the expenditures by the Forest Service for wildfire suppression during fiscal years 1990 through 1994 were made to suppress wildfires in the interior West; (5) the number, size, and severity of wildfires in the interior West are increasing; (6) of the timberland in National Forests in the States of Arizona and New Mexico, 59 percent of such land in Arizona, and 56 percent of such land in New Mexico, has an average diameter of 9 to 12 inches diameter at breast height; (7) the population of the interior West grew twice as fast as the national average during the 1990s; (8) catastrophic wildfires— (A) endanger homes and communities; (B) damage and destroy watersheds and soils; and (C) pose a serious threat to the habitat of threatened and endangered species; (9) a 1994 assessment of forest health in the interior West estimated that only a 15 to 30 year window of opportunity exists for effective management intervention before damage 16 USC 6701. 16 USC 6701 note. Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004. Arizona. New Mexico. Oct. 5, 2004 [H.R. 2696]
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