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Congressional subcommittee urges scale-up of active forest management amid workforce and funding concerns
Summary
Members of the House Agriculture subcommittee and expert witnesses called for larger, better-funded, science-based active management to reduce wildfire risk, while warning that recent Forest Service workforce cuts and proposed reorganizations risk undermining those efforts.
At a House Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry and Horticulture hearing, members and witnesses urged Congress to accelerate active, science‑based forest management to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and to shore up declining Forest Service research and staffing capacity. Witnesses and members cited workforce cuts, shrinking markets for timber, and administrative changes that they said could impede progress.
The hearing centered on the need to "increase the pace and scale of forest management and reduce the levels of hazardous fuels across our forests," said Chairman David G. LaMalfa (first reference: Chairman David G. LaMalfa), in opening remarks. Ranking Member Maria Salinas (first reference: Representative Maria Salinas) said, "active science based management is not about clear cutting large swaths of forest. It's about targeted thinning, prescribed fire, fuels reduction," and warned that…
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