Oppose "Fix" Our Forests Act
Updated: Aug 12
The "Fix Our Forests Act" (FOFA) is a bad bill that does little or nothing to reduce catastrophic wildfire or increase forest health. Instead it guts NEPA, promotes costly biochar, and increases grazing as a wildfire reduction measure. There is no credible evidence that increased grazing reduces wildfire danger or that biochar will work as a forest management tool. FOFA threatens Wilderness with expanded livestock grazing and large-scale logging, without public input. Thanks to everyone who called and wrote Senator Bennet to encourage him, as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to oppose FOFA.
BUT THE BATTLE IS NOT OVER - YOU CAN STILL ACT!:
Call Senator Hickenlooper at 303-244-1628. Ask him to oppose the “Fix Our Forests Act,” and that the minor amendments he has proposed do not fix FOFA.
Call Senator Bennet at 202-224-5852, thank him for his no vote, and ask him to continue his FOFA opposition.
Vote outside Colorado?: Call your Senators (202-224-3121) and ask them to oppose the “Fix Our Forests Act.”
FOFA is a direct attack on the ESA and NEPA, severely limits judicial review, and permits 10,000-acre clearcutting projects without an approval process. Tell your Senators the bill is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to dramatically increase logging, roadbuilding, and livestock grazing on federal public lands by undermining our nation’s bedrock environmental laws.
Fix Our Forest Act Increases Wildfire Danger and Effectively Eliminates Community and Citizen Input
What this bill will do - and how to make it better:
·The bill as written expands categorical exclusions for individual forest management projects (including logging) on national forests and BLM forestlands to 10,000 acres each, and with no limits on the size, age, or percentage of trees that would be logged. Reduce categorical exclusions to a more management size, taking into consideration adjoining Wilderness Area impacts.
The bill as written has the effect of eliminating the potential for enforcement of any and all federal environmental laws with regard to FOFA projects on all national forests and BLM forestlands. Section 131(c) of S. 1462. A provision in S. 1462 is likely to have the effect of eliminating the potential for enforcement of any and all federal environmental laws with regard to FOFA projects on all national forests and BLM forestlands. Section 131(c) of S. 1462. There are no accountability provisions written into the Bill. At a minimum a mandatory 30-day public comment and scoping period is needed for all streamlined projects.
While the bill aims to "fix our forests", it ignores ecological restoration focusing instead on widescale timber cutting. It will as written incentivize deforestation in many arid regions. Further, there are no guidelines on permanent road building. Provide a vision of what a healthy wildfire resistant forest landscape would look like.
No distinguishing of community protection zones from remote landscapes. There are no provisions to make treatments more strategic and cost effective. Emphasis should be placed on treatments in the Wildland-Urban Interface or at risk communities and watersheds.
Instead of focusing on funding proven ways to protect communities such as home hardening and science-based forest restoration projects in appropriate forest types, this legislation will open millions of acres of federal land to logging without scientific review and community input. The bill also paves the way for magnifying the already-expansive system of logging roads and removing large, old trees that naturally confer fire resilience. Provide a vision of what a healthy wildfire resistant forest landscape would look like.
The bill incentivizes widespread production of low-quality biochar on forest lands. This is a mistake. Bochar production requires burning wood slash in high temperature portable biochar kilns over extended periods and can be an ignition danger. Biochar is also expensive and not economically feasible as a forest product. Eliminate provisions promoting biochar and let the free-market dictate it's use.
The bill promotes increased grazing. There is no credible evidence that commercial cattle grazing decreases fire danger. There is evidence that increased human activity (including grazing) is the primary source of wildfire ignition. Eliminate provisions promoting increased grazing from the Bill.
The bill promotes large-scale timber projects which can lead to less fire resistant monocultures. Promote more strategic smaller scale forest projects with widespread stakeholder buy-in to reduce catastrophic wildfire hazard and improve forest health.
Emergency loopholes loom large. The definition of emergency needs to be more precisely defined. Narrow the definition of an "emergency" to immediate, imminent threats to human life and critical infrastructure.
A hotter and dryer climate is the primary cause of increased size and severity of wildfires worldwide. The Fix Our Forest Act as written does nothing to address climate change. 95% of wildfires are human caused. The bill in its current form does nothing to reduce human caused fire starts. More roads and logging in the back country as promoted through provisions of the bill will create more opportunity for human caused wildfire.
There is nothing in the Fix Our Forests Act bill to:
promote quicker response action to put out small fires early.
foster healthy more fire-resistant forests near at-risk communities.
promote urban fuel breaks that could save countless structures.
reduce ignitions by replacing and upgrading electric transmission lines and substations.
incentivize fire-hardening of homes or businesses.
The further diminishing of citizen involvement resulting from this misguided legislation will only make things worse. FOFA is seeming based on the flawed concept that ordinary people know nothing and only big business and big government can protect us. In this case the plan to protect us, is apparently to cut down the forest and graze cattle on the dry land that remains. There is no vision for what a healthy more fire resistant forest landscape might look like.
We need a wildfire bill with funding: money for quick wildfire response, money for quick fire suppression, money for home hardening and urban fuel breaks. We need a bill with vision and focus: strategic cost effective timber projects, a "let no wildfires burn" policy reflecting current and future climate conditions, a more unified USFS District level forest management approach and a science and community informed focus on greater forest diversity.
Please fix the Fix Our Forest Act bill.
Call your Senators, and then also send your two senators this email (please personalize) urging them to oppose the “Fix Our Forests Act.”
Update - The John Muir Project issued a memo sent to Sen Hickenlooper in May of 2026, expressing concern that the legislation if passed may effectively eliminate the Public's right to uphold existing environmental law on Public Lands. Follow this link to read that memo:
Thank you for speaking up for Wilderness, public lands, and the wildlife that call it home!
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