Oppose "Fix" Our Forests Act

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.

Below are more details from our friends at Wilderness Watch:

In January of 2026, the falsely-named “Fix Our Forests Act” (H.R. 471) passed the U.S. House. FOFA is now before the U.S. Senate. It is poorly crafted legislation that is bad for Wilderness and a treat to long-standing environmental law. Senator Hickenlooper has proposed minor changes, but the bill remains a major threat to Wilderness Areas, where it would increase cattle and sheep grazing and widespread use of manager-ignited fire.

The “Fix Our Forests Act” will dramatically change how America’s national forests will be managed, and Wilderness won't be spared. The bill would override bedrock environmental laws and curtail public participation to mandate landscape-scale logging on federal lands, including industrial logging on up to 10,000 acres—or 15 square miles—categorically excluded from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, under the rationale that cutting down trees across 15 square miles of forests has no significant impacts on the environment or wildlife.

For Wilderness, the bill would promote increased cattle and sheep grazing, give authority to Special Districts and Private Party Strike Teams outside the bounds of NEPA. It could transform these places from wild landscapes “untrammeled by man” to human-dominated ones.

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:

https://johnmuirproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/JMP-fact-sheet-FOFA-Senate-bill-misinformation-14May26.pdf

Thank you for speaking up for Wilderness, public lands, and the wildlife that call it home!