The proposal is the result of a September 18 WGA meeting in Salt Lake City, where a bipartisan group of governors met with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to develop a new federal policy in the wake of this summer’s Western wildfires.

In the proposal, contained in the bill’s report language, Congress "direct[s] the Secretaries [of Agriculture and Interior] to engage Governors in a collaborative structure to cooperatively develop a coordinated, National ten-year comprehensive strategy with the States as full partners in the planning, decision making, and implementation of the plan." The language also states that, "Key decisions should be made at local levels."

The House of Representatives approved the proposal late Tuesday as part of the Interior Appropriations Bill for the 2001 fiscal year. The Senate took up the measure today.

"This summer, any justification for continuing the status quo forest policy just went up in flames," Kempthorne said in testimony before the House Agriculture Committee. "Clearly, it is time for a new policy. One that’s based upon scientific principles, and one that focuses on forest health."

"I’m pleased that the report language agreed to by the conferees on the Interior Appropriations Bill…will allow this new strategy to be implemented," Kempthorne told the panel. "A strategy where states are full partners in the planning, decision-making, and implementation with the federal government. And importantly, a strategy that emphasizes key decisions need to be made at the local level, which will mean real changes in the on-the-ground management of federal lands in the West."

At the Salt Lake City meeting, the governors and secretaries agreed to a 10-year strategy for actively managing fire-prone forests on state, federal, tribal and private lands, where landowners are willing. It would involve states in the decision-making, analysis and planning, a partnership articulated by the governors in a policy resolution entitled, "Improving Forest Ecosystem Health on Federal Lands."

At the Washington hearing, Kempthorne urged Congress to continue to support Western governors in developing this new policy, warning that fuel conditions on federal lands are likely to be just as combustible next summer.

"Unless we have dramatic increase in moisture next year, all of the conditions that exist this year continue to exist and the expectation is that we can assume that it may be just as devastating next year if we do not begin to remove the fuel load," Kempthorne said. "We need to go forward with this, because to do nothing – which really has been the policy – does not work."

WGA policy resolutions related to this issue are available on the Web at www.westgov.org.

The Western Governors' Association is an independent, nonprofit organization representing the governors of 18 states, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Through their association, the Western governors identify and address key policy and governance issues in natural resources, the environment, human services, economic development, international relations and public management.

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