As we enter the holiday season, national attention has been sharply focused on Congressional proposals to reform Medicare. Few people noticed the important environmental legislation passed by Congress and sent to the President on November 21. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 is a bold step in support of active forest management and fire prevention that more effectively and safely manages the natural role of fire in the forest ecosystem.

Unnaturally dense conditions and the unchecked risk of insect infestation and disease have placed the nation's public forestlands at risk. These conditions encourage massive, uncontrollable wildfires that threaten forest ecosystems as well as the homes and lives of Northwest residents. Congress and the President have taken a first step in addressing the needs of the nation's forests. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 lifts some of the barriers to healthy forest management, while maintaining strong environmental protections.

To better understand the need for more active forest management, it is important to understand the history of western forests. Before settlers reached the western shores of North America, fire was a natural and frequent occurrence in the region. Fire reduced underbrush and dead trees and ensured a healthy pattern of regeneration. Following statehood new settlers recognized the very real danger fire posed to humans, and so began a policy of aggressive wildfire prevention. Not only did fires threaten growing towns and trading posts, they also destroyed valuable timber resources, which were the lifeblood of the region's frontier economy.

For some time this policy worked. The Forest Service codified fire prevention, officially vowing to suppress all wildfires. As a result, western settlements prospered and the timber value of national forests was protected. But over time things changed. As the years passed without natural fire, fuels began to build up, altering the ecosystem of the forest. Beginning in the 1980s, severe restrictions on timber harvest further reduced opportunities for regeneration. As a result, instead of well-spaced, healthy forests, we now have crowded, dense forests choked with underbrush, dead trees and bushes.

The Healthy Forest Restoration Act will help restore the nation's forests to a healthier, natural state. The Forest Service is now authorized to begin thinning in areas with heavy fuel build-up, and improve wildfire protections around rural communities. The Act also reduces bureaucratic and legal hurdles that block forest management projects.

Opponents of active forest management argue, instead, for a no-touch policy. They want to prohibit most human contact with what they consider pristine forestland. While no-touch policies may sound nice, their practical implications can be devastating. Because we have prevented wildfires for the past 100 years, suddenly adopting a let-it-burn policy will lead to more of the huge, devastating fires that have plagued the Western United States in recent years.

Few experiences provide a starker example of the effects of hands-off management than this year's San Bernardino wildfires. Fanned by heavy winds and fueled by choked, unmanaged forests, the fires burned 800,000 acres, destroyed 3,400 homes and claimed the lives of 22 people. In 2002 alone the federal government spent $1.6 billion fighting wildfires that burned almost 7 million acres.

The new law retains historic protections for old growth forests, allocating a substantial amount of the $760 million appropriated by the bill to cover the extra cost of only harvesting the small trees that pose the biggest fire danger. Recent research by the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources clearly illustrates how thinning can produce considerable benefits, often making up the full cost of thinning the smaller trees. These benefits come in the form of reduced fire suppression expenditures, fewer burned structures and lower health risks from smoke pollution, among others.

While the Healthy Forest Restoration Act is not the final step in restoring healthy forests, it is a welcome improvement in the nation's outdated forest management policy. With further research and continued bold support from state and national policymakers, we can restore the ecological health of our national forests and prevent the human and environmental devastation caused by wildfires.