Sec. 2. Findings
383 words·~2 min read·
/bill/116/s/4625/is/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds that— in 2018, the Forest Service Fire Modeling Institute determined that 63,070,000 acres of National Forest System land and 171,200,000 acres of other forest land were at high or very high risk of experiencing a wildfire that would be difficult to suppress; according to the National Interagency Coordination Center, between 2009 and 2018, in the United States, on average— 67,000 wildfires burned 7,000,000 acres annually; and 86,345 prescribed fires burned only 3,000,000 acres annually; according to the National Interagency Coordination Center, the annual cost of suppressing wildfires in a State with an active prescribed burning program is less than 1 percent of the annual cost of suppressing wildfires in a State without an active prescribed burning program, despite each State having the same number of wildfires; according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of Forestry, on a given acre, a prescribed fire burning in April or May produces less than 1/5 of the smoke emissions of a wildfire that would burn on that acre in August; according to a 2019 study conducted by Stanford University, smoke from prescribed fires exposes children to fewer negative health effects than the detrimental smoke generated by wildfires; according to a 2015 study published in Ecology, trees that have not been burnt by a low-intensity fire are unusually prone to bark beetle attacks, and between 2000 and 2010, bark beetles killed the majority of trees on 32,000,000 acres of the 193,000,000 acres of National Forest System land; as of September 30, 2019, there were— 37 prescribed fire councils in 33 States; and 64 prescribed burn associations in 11 States; according to the 2018 National Prescribed Fire Use Survey Report— 37 States regulate prescribed fires by issuing burn permits; 23 States offer prescribed burn manager certification courses to facilitate responsible burning on private land; only 5 States (Vermont, Massachusetts, Missouri, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) lack laws to reduce liability associated with the responsible use of prescribed fire; and only 8 States (Florida, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington) have laws that use a standard of gross negligence for determining liabilities for the responsible use of prescribed fire; and as of September 30, 2019, 31 States have a formal process to track the number of acres treated for forestry purposes using prescribed fire.