ACTION ALERT: Senate Voting to Relinquish Management of Public Lands ~ HR2647

Hey Folks,
 
A bad piece of legislation concerning the management of federal forest land has passed the house and is headed to the Senate.  The problem with this legislation is that it ignores the root of the problem and that is federal ownership of state land. 
 
Here is a statement from the Natural Resource committee:  “One year ago tomorrow, the House passed the Resilient Federal Forests Act (H.R. 2647) to address the nation's overgrown, fire-prone federal forests. Since then, 8.5 million acres have been destroyed, including 2.3 million acres this year alone.”
 
The citizens of all 50 states have to call all the Senators on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry to let them know that the federal government should relinquish all authority and ownership of federal land and allow it to revert back to the prospective county, or state.  
 
The reason Coos County should be very concerned with this bill is that it could allow an Indian tribe the ability to manage federal land in the county, including the O&C lands and the Coos Bay Wagon Road land.  The county would lose money to allow some other entity to manage land we are perfectly capable of managing ourselves.   Plus, these management agreements erode the sovereignty of both our Nation and the Indian Nations….Rob T. 

Link to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry:  
www.agriculture.senate.gov
U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry
328A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC, 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2035
Fax: (202) 228-2125
 
Link to information on HR2647:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2647/all-info

There are 4 summaries for H.R.2647. View summaries
Passed House amended (07/09/2015)
Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015
TITLE VII--TRIBAL FORESTRY PARTICIPATION AND PROTECTION
(Sec. 701) Interior shall take specified administrative action under the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 within 120 days of receiving a request from an Indian Tribe to enter into an agreement or contract to carry out a project to protect Indian forest land or rangeland (including bordering or adjacent federal land). Interior shall (under current law, may) issue a notice of denial to the Tribe if the request is denied.
(Sec. 702) The Department concerned, at the request of an Indian Tribe, may treat federal forest land as Indian forest land for purposes of planning and conducting forest land management activities under the National Indian Forest Resources Management Act if the federal forest land is located within, or mostly within, a geographic area presenting a feature or involving circumstances principally relevant to that Indian tribe.
The Department concerned and the Tribe, as part of an agreement to treat federal land as Indian forest land, shall:

• provide for continued public access (with possible exceptions),
• continue sharing revenue generated by the federal forest land with state and local governments,
• comply with applicable prohibitions on the export of unprocessed logs harvested from the federal forest land,
• recognize all right-of way agreements in place on federal forest land before tribal management activities commence; and
• ensure that all commercial timber removed from the federal forest land is sold on a competitive bid basis.
  (Sec. 703) Interior and USDA may carry out demonstration projects by which federally recognized Indian tribes or tribal organizations may contract to perform administrative, management, and other functions of programs of the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 through contracts entered into under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
   
  TITLE VIII--MISCELLANEOUS FOREST MANAGEMENT PROVISIONS
  (Sec. 807) The Northwest Forest Plan Survey and Manage Mitigation Measure Standard and Guidelines shall not apply to any System or public lands.
  (Sec. 808) All of the public land managed by the BLM in the Salem District, Eugene District, Roseburg District, Coos Bay District, Medford District, and the Klamath Resource Area of the Lakeview District in Oregon shall be managed pursuant to federal law relating to management of the revested Oregon and California Railroad and reconveyed Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands under Interior jurisdiction and classified as timberlands and power-site lands valuable for timber. All of the revenue produced from such lands shall be deposited into the Oregon and California land-grant fund, except any revenue required to be deposited into the Coos Bay Wagon Road grant fund.
  (Sec. 809) Interior shall develop and consider, a reference analysis and two additional alternatives as part of the revisions of the resource management plans for the BLM's Salem, Eugene, Coos Bay, Roseburg, and Medford Districts and the Klamath Resource Area of the Lakeview District.
  This reference analysis shall measure and assume the harvest of the annual growth net of natural mortality for all forested land in the planning area in order to determine the maximum sustained yield capacity of the forested land base and to establish a baseline by which Interior shall measure incremental effects on the sustained yield capacity and environmental impacts from management prescriptions in all other alternatives.
  Interior shall develop and consider:

• one additional alternative with the goal of maximizing the total carbon benefits from forest storage and wood product storage; and
• a second additional alternative that produces the greater of 500 million board feet or the annual net growth on the acres classified as timberland, excluding any congressionally reserved areas.
  Interior shall publish the reference analysis and additional alternatives and analyze their environmental and economic consequences in a supplemental draft environmental impact statement.

Related Posts:
BLM ~ Redistributes Secure Rural Schools Payments to Western Oregon Counties
House District 1 Candidate Smith Opposes the Designation of Owyhee Monument
Natural Resource Committee Video of Corrupt Employee in Charge of National Parks
Open Letter to Rep. Bruce Westerman on Origins of CBWR in H.R. 2647
Does Advisory Vote Trump a Resolution for Management of the Wagon Road Lands
Outsourcing US Land Management to the Indians  
USACE ~ Comment on Permit Application Process Wednesday November 18, 2015
USFWS ~ Treating Private Property off the Bandon Marsh
The Mosquitoes Return to the Coquille Valley
Two Bills on Wetlands in Oregon Legislature SB544 Protects Landowners
ODFW ~ Conservation Opportunity Areas for Stealing Private Property
O&C Land Wyden Bill Still Not Good for Rural Oregon
O&C :Urgent" Public Comment Tell Wyden You Oppose his Deal to Environmentalist
Tribal Forest Management in the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs
MGX~Lobbyist a Big Waste of #CoosCounty Money for Wagon Road Lands
Natural Resource Committee Demanding Senate Action on H.R.1526 Public Comment 
Why does the Government Own & Hoard Resources?
Senator Wyden’s O&C Plan will Bankrupt Counties Part #2
Senator Wyden's O&C Plan will Bankrupt Counties  Part #1
Senator Whitsett---Oregon: Transfer public lands from feds?
Natural Resources Committee--State Forests Management Superior to Federal Forests
O&C Land---Timber Bill and Log Prices
BLM---Lawsuit expands to lock-up 90 million bd-ft of timber    
WANTED: Examples of Economic Hardship Due to ESA Critical Habitat
GOA Alert: Senate to vote on the Federal Land Seizure Act on Thursday‏
RMP's for Western Oregon
Urgent, Urgent, Urgent, House May Cave On LWCF. Call Now.
Comments from the Cottage Grove 912 
A Meeting About Nothing....

---