What They Are Saying: Montana Forestry and Conservation Groups Offer Broad Support for Daines’ Bipartisan Bill to Improve Forest Health and Management

10.28.21

U.S. SENATE - Last week, several forestry and conservation groups voiced their support for U.S. Senator Steve Daines' new bipartisan bill that would provide for more efficient and effective forest management by empowering collaboratives and public-private partnerships. Daines introduced the bill last week with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Statements of Support for the "Root and Stem Act:"

"Only with the help of states and the private sector can we tackle the wildfire crisis and the 80 million acre forest-restoration backlog. Building on the success of the Colville National Forest's "A to Z" project, the Roots and Stem Project Authorization Act of 2021 proposes to harness the power of public-private collaboration by empowering states and private parties to design forest restoration projects, to fund environmental analysis, and to implement projects. The bill also addresses the serious threat of litigation to responsible forest management."-Jonathan Wood, PERC Vice President of Law and Policy

"The last several summers have demonstrated that the old approach to managing our National Forests is not working. Large scale fires, insect and disease mortality, and general forest health on our National Forests is at a crisis level. The collaborative approach to management in the Feinstein Daines legislation has proven effective where it has been tried. It's time for Congress to codify this Root & Stem approach that will encourage partners in the public and private sector to invest in more active forest management. We've got to try everything to stop the devastation we're seeing on our forests."-Bill Imbergamo, Executive Director, Federal Forest Resource Coalition.

"The Root and Stem Act encourages collaboration between public and private stakeholders, which is key to reaching the scale and pace necessary to address the state of emergency that exists within our nation's forests and public lands."-Becky Humphries, CEO, National Wild Turkey Federation

"Montana lost over 260,000 acres to wildfire this year. With over 9 million acres identified in the Montana Forest Action Plan as acres needing restoration treatments, the Montana Wood Products Association supports and applauds Senator Daines' "Roots and Stem Project Authorization Act of 2021". A collaboratively developed project authorizes a private person or private/public entity to enter into a contract not to exceed 10 years, while still being subject to judicial review but with a statute of limitations. We believe the "Roots and Stem Project Authorization Act of 2021" is a game changer."-Montana Wood Products Association

"MLA fully supports all efforts in helping the USFS increase its restoration efforts. The bottleneck of getting NEPA done in a timely manner is a consistent message we hear from our agency partners. MLA stands committed with our collaboration partners in designing and implementing forest management on those acres of high priority. As always, Thank you Senator Daines for your leadership on forest management issues."-Montana Logging Association

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Contact: Katherine McKeogh,Katie Schoettler

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