Norton backs forest thinning plan

RENO - Interior Secretary Gale Norton visited tribal lands near Reno to press the case for President Bush's request for $760 million to reduce the risk of wildfires by thinning national forests and rangelands.

Norton also used Saturday's tour to announce a 56-acre hazardous fuels reduction project designed to provide a safe buffer for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony in Hungry Valley 10 miles north of Reno.

It's the latest in a string of Bureau of Land Management projects in northern Nevada that involve thinning of desert brush and trees to reduce fire danger.

Norton insisted the $760 million sought to continue implementation of Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative would improve forest and rangeland management, and create healthier landscapes.

"The increase represents the president's determination and strong commitment to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires and to restore the health of our nation's forests and rangelands," Norton said.

"This funding level, coupled with collaboration with local communities ..., will enhance the ability of field managers to make decisions more effectively and more quickly," she added.

Bush's request is at least $80 million more than current spending and would allow forest and rangeland managers to treat up to 4 million acres at risk of fire.

The acreage is quadruple the amount treated in 2000, when a record 8 million acres of forest land burned. In 1999, wildfires blackened a record 1.8 million acres across Nevada.

"I think Congress is quite prepared to approve (the $760 million). They've seen the importance of these projects after all the fires in the West," Norton told reporters outside the colony's community center.

"We want to prevent the devastating wildfires that occurred last fall in Southern California from happening in the Reno area," she added.

The administration is trying to ease environmentalists' concerns by using a community-based decision process, Norton said.

"Our proposals will be generated from the ground up," Norton said. "That has made a lot of the concerns go away.

"We worked closely with the tribe" to develop Hungry Valley's plan, she added.

Tribal Chairman Arlan Melendez said numerous fires have threatened the area over the years and he thinks the plan will make his community safer.

"I think it's a great project. The tribe supports it," Melendez said.

Jay Watson, wildland fire program director for the Wilderness Society, said his group supports hazardous fuels reduction around communities but still objects to thinning in more unspoiled areas.

"Certainly, the primary emphasis near town is to protect those towns and we fully support that," Watson said. "We, in fact, will be lobbying Congress for additional funding for that task.

"But the farther out you go the more sensitive you have to be. Then the goal should be ecological restoration and bringing fire back into the system," he added.

Other critics have called the so-called "Healthy Forests" law passed by Congress last fall a giveway to the timber industry, which has contributed more than $500,000 to Bush since 1999.

But administration officials insist much of the treatment work will be done through prescribed burns, not logging.

"We'll be watching the program closely and it'll come down to how it's implemented on the ground," Watson said.