Conservationists: “Stimulate” $45 Billion for Federal Lands
If we’re going to spend a fortune, let’s spend it on a real public benefit.
The Boone and Crockett Club (B&C) has taken note of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, and they have an important message for Congress: Federal lands count as infrastructure, too. What’s more, those lands need some urgent TLC to protect them from forest fires and other threats. B&C just released a new fact sheet explaining why America should spend $45 billion for forest management and restoration on federal lands over the next decade.
The U.S. Forest Service has over 80 million acres of land at moderate to high risk from catastrophic fire. There are millions of acres in need of reforestation when high-intensity fires reduce the potential for natural regeneration. Because President Biden’s American Jobs Plan includes the charge to “Maximize the resilience of land and water resources to protect communities and the environment,” says B&C, forest management needs a big stimulus, too.
Towards that end, Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet introduced the Outdoor Restoration Partnership Act that would address these forest management funding needs; his state was one of several that witnessed unprecedented damage during the devastating 2020 fire season.
“Restoration and management of America’s national forests is an investment in our natural infrastructure that protects our communities, municipal water supplies, and fish and wildlife habitat – and provides natural climate solutions. These projects also deliver jobs to American workers in communities across the country,” commented Club President Jim Arnold. “The Boone and Crockett Club calls on Congress to make an investment of $40 billion in federal forest management and $5 billion in reforestation over the next 10 years to make our forests more resilient and reduce our risk of catastrophic wildfires.”
Active forest management such as harvesting trees, thinning dead and dying trees, creating fuel breaks, prescribed and managed burns, and creating defensible spaces are all effective tools to reduce wildfire threats while also improving habitat and helping to sequester carbon. In addition, the lumber produced by these forest management efforts will lock up carbon in long-lasting wood products and create better growing conditions for the next stand of trees, which will sequester even more carbon.
At the same time, there are estimates that over 11 million acres of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands are in need reforestation. Failure to reforest these acres will create millions of acres of brushfields, which can be lower quality habitat and are vulnerable to future reburns. Active reforestation of these lands can also help sequester more than 16 million tons of carbon per year.
“Working collaboratively through a sustained investment in shared stewardship with states, local communities, and private landowners over the next 10 years can begin restoring our forests and watershed health, while protecting our communities, providing jobs, and improving biodiversity,” concluded Arnold. “The Boone and Crockett Club strongly supports Senator Michael Bennet’s Outdoor Restoration Partnership Act and asks Congress to act swiftly on bipartisan legislation that will provide significant funding for forest management as part of any federal infrastructure package that moves forward.”
Michael Bennett is a radical leftist and a Democrat. You were careful to leave that out of the article.. NO NO NO> I want no wasting of 45 billion dollars no matter how much you think it is a good idea.
So I will ask you the question we all want to know. WHAT is the vested interest of the Boone and Crockett club. My ancestry includes Boone, And Crocket came and died in Texas where I now live. NO WAY would either of them be in favor of such WASTE.
Who ever included this article on a conservative site. GO AWAY. God will judge you according to Matthew ‘
12:36. And you will be condemned.
ADRoberts: I don’t think we need all $45Billion NOW, but setting up a TRUST for the lands with the rest not used at this time would be a good idea. Not a waste: the park rangers have been understaffed and underpaid at the Parks for many years now. Trail, road, bridge, campground, facility and waterway maintenance for these lands cost money that hasn’t been spent in decades. Buildings put in by the CCC 75years ago are falling apart. Some damage is permanent. Foreign companies have taken over concessions of all types since the US can’t fund it. We need to be good stewards of the land. Matthew 25:14-30, it’s a better investment than pouring the same funds into more giveaways to the lazy that won’t work. There’s nothing more Conservative than that. Give an account of your stewardship: Luke 16:2.
I’m all in favor of spending money on public lands, but the majority should go to the preservation of national parks, refuges, and reserves. This includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. If it takes paying off the oil companies to keep them out of there, (I’m not suggesting it, but if it does) it should be considered. Then hire more LEOs to stop poachers – incl. oil and mining poachers – to keep it all pristine. We must leave this earth in better condition than how we found it for the sake of future generations. Conservatives should be following Teddy Roosevelt’s example and make Conservation a No.1 priority. It’s in the name, now walk the talk.
I wish the federal deficit and the national debt were on the same priority list as the environment
Brian – agreed – even better would be to return all of the ‘federal’ lands that are not being used for what they are constitutionally designated purposes to their respective states. There are only a very few limited reasons that the feds can legally own land. Yes I know that those original reasons have been expanded via bureaucratic decisions, some good – national parks (maybe) – but many for not so good reasons.
Up here in the Adirondack park, out-of state “landowners” are turning tracts of timber into “brush fields”, as everything is harvested turning the land into a “clearing” that ends up growing berry bushes and Beech whips.