SW Arizona News

U.S. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) kept her pedal to the metal in her drive to increase the health of Arizona’s forests and lower the chances of deadly wildfires.

McSally’s fight for forest health began in February 2019 when she helped pass a bill that included provisions to modernize wildfire technology. It continued through the summer of 2019, and this month she introduced a Forest Health and Biomass Energy Act, which aims to restore the state’s forest by incentivizing the removal of dangerous overgrowth.

“One of the biggest challenges we’ve had in forest restoration in Arizona is the crushing expense of harvesting and removing low-value biomass like branches, slash and undergrowth from the forest,” McSally said during a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining on Sept. 17. “My bill will accelerate forest restoration by reducing the cost and regulatory barriers to clearing out dangerous overgrowth and utilizing that material for carbon neutral biomass electricity.”

The act would also order the administration to assess the biomass energy fuel potential in U.S. forests and establish a fund using a percentage of timber sale revenues to assist timber operators and biomass energy producers with collection, harvesting and transportation of biomass material out of hazardous areas.

Also during the subcommittee meeting, McSally pressed the Forest Service about dragging its feet in carrying out the Arizona Four Forest Restoration Initiative that was introduced last year.

“Even though this is the single most important project underway to reduce the risk of wildfire in Arizona, the Forest Service recently pushed back Phase 2 even further,” McSally said. “This is unacceptable. We cannot afford to delay active forest practices any longer. We must get projects like 4FRI out of the planning room and into the forest immediately.”

The introduction of McSally’s new bill comes as wildfires ravage the West. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 78 fires, one of which is in Arizona, have burned 3.9 million acres. Nearly 32,000 firefighters and other personnel have been assigned to wildfires across the West.

“The wildfire crisis is real and it does require bold action from Congress to reduce hazardous fuels and improve the health of our forest,” McSally said. “If we are serious about reducing the intensity and the severity of these wildfires, we need to focus on policies that actually improve the health of our forests.”