Ribble Wants To Speed Up Federal Forest Management

A bill making its way through Congress would make it easier for the U.S. Forest Service to manage federal forest land, expediting environmental reviews in some cases.

The Resilient Federal Forests Act looks to speed up some forest management processes, including timber salvage harvests after natural disasters and environmental assessments. Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble is a co-sponsor of the legislation. He said the measure would apply to actions that reduce the risk of wildfire.

“If you can’t clean the forest floor – if you can’t get at the bed of some of the wildlife that’s growing there, you end up having this flammable fuel source for fires,“ Ribble said. “There is some disagreement with some of the environmental groups on how this should be done, but we can look at current history and say, ‘What we’re doing doesn’t work.’”

Ribble said the bill would also make federal disaster funding available to pay for firefighting. He said that change would make money available for forest management and frees up resources for timber harvests.