Jared Huffman: “The Forest Service manages millions of acres of forestland, including vital watersheds, critical wildlife habitat, and…”

“The Forest Service manages millions of acres of forestland, including vital watersheds, critical wildlife habitat, and countless outdoor recreational areas. The Forest Service's 10-year wildlife crisis strategy implementation plan stresses the importance of fire-adapted landscapes and hazardous fuel treatments to build resilient forests. These critical wildfire risk reduction projects are complex, multistep processes requiring significant planning and investments often carried out over several years. In order for these projects to operate effectively, we must receive accurate, transparent, and accessible data on how they are planned and implemented. This bill proposes requiring the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to include in the President's annual budget a report on hazardous fuel activities carried out in a given fiscal year to account for each treated acre. The ongoing reporting requirement would enhance transparency and accountability, providing critical information that could help guide investments in the management of our national forests, including how we deploy the historic funding for wildfire risk reduction efforts that were included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and in the Inflation Reduction Act if we can hang on to that historic funding in the coming months. I certainly support this bill for proposing that idea of an ongoing reporting requirement.…”