Chapter 0099 - 442R - H Ver of SB1335

House Engrossed

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Forty-fourth Legislature

Second Regular Session

2000

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 2038

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

in support of aggressive landscape level forest restoration for Arizona's extensive ponderosa pine forests.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Whereas, throughout this century, forest scientists have warned that Arizona's pine forests were increasing in tree densities; and

Whereas, by the 1990's tree densities were three hundred to five hundred trees per acre compared to twenty-five to fifty trees per acre in the 1800's; and

Whereas, in 1994, the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service reported to Congress that most of the western pine forest ecosystems had become severely degraded by increasing tree densities; and

Whereas, the 1994 Report of the National Commission on Wildfire Disasters stated that the negative conditions that have resulted from past management policies have created a fire environment that is so disaster‑prone in many areas that it will periodically and tragically overwhelm our best efforts at fire prevention and suppression; and

Whereas, in 1999, a study by the Government Accounting Office declared that due to overly dense stands thirty-nine million acres of western public forest lands are now at high risk of loss to catastrophic disease infestation and wildfire, with over five million acres at risk in Arizona and New Mexico; and

Whereas, extensive watershed resources and community losses are now being realized in Arizona, and since 1990 the Dude Fire, Point Fire, Hockderffor Fire, Horseshoe Fire and Whiteriver (Rainbow) Fire are evidence of these extensive losses; and

Whereas, human lives, extensive property and social infrastructure are being lost along with forest ecosystems, habitat for endangered species and water resources; and

Whereas, scientists, forest managers and forest specialists agree that the health of forest ecosystems can be restored and watershed can be made less susceptible to wildfire losses; and

Whereas, environmental organizations, local, county, state and federal governments, Native American tribes, industry and other organizations currently are involved in cooperative restoration partnerships and these activities now need to be pursued at the landscape level and should incorporate several or all of the following practices:

1. Creation of fuel breaks around community developments with aggressive restoration practices.

2. Introduction of significant tree removals through thinning or harvests to create presettlement forest densities, character and structure.

3. Removal of excess wood and plant fuels from the forest floor.

4. Removal of excess diseased, insect-infested or dead standing trees.

5. Implementation of prescribed fire into the complete landscape.

Therefore

Be it resolved by House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring;

That the members of the Legislature encourage all state agencies to enter into aggressive cooperative programs of forest restoration at the landscape level with their federal counterparts.