# The RESTORE Act of 2021: What It Does

This bill creates a streamlined process for the federal government to manage forests in ways designed to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health. When a state governor requests it, the Secretary of Agriculture can select a forest area in that state and carry out forest management projects on up to 75,000 acres at a time. The goal is to make forests more resilient to wildfires and better adapted to climate change.

The types of work allowed include creating fuel breaks (cleared strips of land that slow fire spread), thinning forests to remove small trees and brush that can fuel fires, conducting controlled burns, and removing dead or dying trees. The bill requires that these projects preserve old-growth and large trees when possible and use the best available science to maintain the forest's ecological health. However, the bill prohibits building permanent roads as part of these projects.

The bill's most significant feature is that it streamlines the environmental review process for certain forest projects. Normally, federal forest management requires extensive environmental studies and analysis. Under this bill, if a project goes through a collaborative community process or is covered by a local wildfire protection plan, the government only needs to consider two options: doing the project or doing nothing. They don't have to study multiple alternative approaches. This speeds up decision-making but also limits public input on different ways to accomplish the goals. The bill also encourages courts to move quickly if someone sues to challenge these projects.

The bill excludes official wilderness areas and some protected forest lands from these streamlined projects, and it authorizes $200 million per year in funding. Essentially, it's designed to make it faster and easier for the government to thin forests and reduce fire risk in areas near communities, though it does so by reducing the depth of environmental review that would normally occur.

RESTORE Act of 2021

LaMalfa, Doug

Restoring Environments, Soils, Trees, and Operations to develop the Rural Economy Act of 2021 or the RESTORE Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA), at the request of a governor of a state, to select a forest landscape in the state on which to conduct a forest landscape project. For a project, USDA must carry out one or more specified management activities, including installing fuel breaks, conducting controlled burns, and removing dead trees.