Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017

Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017

This bill shall apply whenever the Department concerned, either the Department of Agriculture for National Forest System (NFS) lands or the Department of the Interior for public lands, prepares an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) for specified forest management activities, including those that:

• will occur on lands identified as suitable for timber production; or
• will occur on a landscape-scale area designated by the Department concerned as part of an insect and disease treatment program on NSF land pursuant to the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, notwithstanding whether such activity is initiated before September 30, 2018.

In such an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement, the Department concerned shall study, develop, and describe only these two alternatives:

• the forest management activity, and
• the alternative of no action.

In the case of the alternative of no action, the Department concerned shall evaluate:

• the effect of no action on forest health, habitat diversity, wildfire potential, insect and disease potential, and timber production; and
• the implications of a resulting decline in forest health, loss of habitat diversity, wildfire, or insect or disease infestation on domestic water supply in the project area, wildlife habitat loss, and other economic and social factors.

The bill establishes categorical exclusions regarding certain other forest management actions.

A process is established for declaration of a major disaster for wildfire on federal lands managed by specified federal land management agencies.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov