Eli Crane Presses Witness About Forest Management And Fire Mitigation Through Targeted Grazing

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) questioned witnesses about fire mitigation through targeted grazing.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Eli Crane is recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this very important hearing

00:05today. And I want to thank you guys for all coming to testify. I'm pretty new to Congress

00:11myself. I represent Arizona's second congressional district, which is about 53% of Arizona.

00:17To start to educate myself on this very important issue over the last couple years, I've visited

00:23timber cells within the district. Just recently outside of Flagstaff, you know, I went and saw

00:29a controlled burn, which was very impressive, the professionalism at which you guys were

00:34handling that. I also just went to the new sawmill outside of Flagstaff. I was also very impressed

00:39with that operation. We've gone to the Ecological Restoration Institute at NAU. My entire staff

00:46went there so we could learn more about this issue. And it is a very serious issue. I've

00:52had a lot of people in the district tell me they've been very concerned this year with

00:56the lack of moisture that we've got. And they feel like we're in a vulnerable situation.

01:01And we also have a couple fires right now burning in the district. Mr. Chapman, I want to start

01:06with you and thank you for coming, sir. I want to thank you for what you do for Arizona, Northern

01:12Arizona communities. As you know, my district includes several areas prone to wildfires, including

01:19the Kaibab, the Coconino, Apache Sick Graves, and Tonto National Forest, which are all part

01:25of ForeFry. I've seen firsthand the work that is required to properly manage our forests and

01:30conduct hazardous fuel treatment. Like I said, I recently went to the new sawmill just outside

01:36of Flagstaff, which has already been instrumental in supporting thinning efforts. And I was proud

01:40to see how Northern Arizona is more than capable of meeting goals in President Trump's executive

01:44order. Mr. Chapman, can you speak to the impact of proactive fuel reduction efforts and how

01:50you've seen forest thinning as effective management strategy?

01:55We see it every single day. We really have an incredibly fire adapted system. And that system

02:02and how it burns is really up to us. And the collaborative process that we've established

02:07in Flagstaff allows us to most days turn a bad fire into not a big deal that you don't hear

02:13about because of those fuel treatments that we've done in the woods, because of the collaborative

02:17process. Building on Chief Muncie, we now have a really robust network of cameras around

02:24the Flagstaff area through a partnership with Arizona Public Service, the APS, the utility.

02:30So we're really trying to check all those boxes on community risk reduction efforts. We do

02:33the treatments. We do the monitoring. We do the maintenance. We do the annual collaboration

02:38between our first responders. So our state, federal and local partners, you know, when

02:44we get a call and we roll out, it doesn't really matter right away, whether it's forest service

02:47or city or state land, we get there, we'll deal with that later. And the dispatch centers

02:51sort that out. So that collaborative process has been the game changer for us in both response

02:57and implementing those treatments and then maintaining those treatments. So thank you for the question

03:02and for the kind comments on our work in the community.

03:05Yes, sir. You also mentioned in your testimony that in high risk areas like northern Arizona,

03:09wildfire risk reduction sees an estimated $7 return for every $1 invested. Some crucial

03:17research from Ecological Restoration Institute at NAU. Can you explain how risk reduction funding

03:24saves taxpayer dollars down the line? Absolutely. We can look at some of the treatments around

03:29our community. We were, we just heard about the Fraser Experimental Forest. We actually have

03:33the first experimental forest in the country in the Flagstaff area, the Fort Valley Experimental Forest.

03:37And there's a network of treatments that have taken place around that forest as well.

03:42Some of our treatments around the Flagstaff area within 4FRI are starting to actually pay for

03:47themselves. They needed to be subsidized for a while before the timber industry that's doing

03:51this restoration work to get up to speed and have that capacity. And so it's really a long story.

03:57Like I said, 4FRI has been around almost 15 years now to get where we are. But those initial

04:02investments in providing the certainty that the trees will be made available to the industry to

04:07do this restoration work has been the game changer that it's allowing a company like the Restoration

04:12Forest Products that you went and visited to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into that facility.

04:16So when we actually see per acre boots on the ground, if we're spending, you know, the NEPA,

04:23the management, the oversight, all of that work on the federal side, for every dollar that we're

04:28seeing of partners going to those projects, we're estimating, and I think it's probably a fairly low

04:33estimate because there's all these costs that we just can't calculate, that if we can prevent a $15

04:38million fire with a couple thousand dollars worth of subsidies for our treatments, then we're avoiding

04:44significant costs and we're staying in a positive space.

04:47Yeah. I know that Ponderosa Pines are not considered the most valuable timber in the country.

04:54And I've talked to constituents and also industry leaders who say that one of their biggest challenges

05:01in bringing in private investments to help us deal with some of the fire mitigation efforts

05:08is that the Forest Service often doesn't extend them very long leases.

05:13So many of them won't come in because the investment just doesn't pencil out.

05:17They don't have a long enough access to these forests and to the timber to make their investment

05:22pencil. I wanted to get your thoughts on that, if you've heard of that being a problem as

05:27well, and if so, what you would like to see from the Forest Service.

05:31Contracting is challenging. How we make sure that we take care of all of our loggers is very

05:38important for us. So we may have a family business that a long-term supply over 10 years to them may

05:44be 20,000 acres. We've got to make sure they get taken care of. At the same time, we have a big

05:49business coming in where a 10-year supply to them might be 200,000 acres. So how do we make sure that

05:55all of our workers in this space are being taken care of is challenging. And, you know, I think one of

06:00the big lessons of ForeFry is that a large contract was offered in the early days and it wasn't

06:05successful. So I think there's a lot of parts into this challenging process of contracting that need

06:11to come together. Sometimes it's finding that assurance of long-term supply at multiple different

06:17scales because, you know, the urgency here really is tough. I don't want any losers in the woods. I want

06:22them all to be winners. Our family businesses that have been doing this for a long time, the new folks

06:26coming in and making big investments. We need them all to be successful. And so figuring out what

06:31that right fit is with the contracting process, I don't think we have that figured out yet, but we

06:36sure are trying. And because we have that collaborative NEPA that's completed, we have the

06:41space to figure this out. So we're in a good position. Mr. Chairman, will you allow me one more

06:47question? I will. Thank you. Can you talk really quickly about grazing and how that can affect

06:55fire mitigation? Targeted grazing, we talked about this in the Wildfire Commission report.

07:00It can play a really important role in providing that surface fuel reduction. The opportunity to go

07:08into these strategic areas where we know there's these fire pathways where the fire is going to move

07:12quickly through these areas. We've done the thinning. We've reduced that crown fire risk. Now we've got

07:17a fast-moving grass fire risk. How do we reduce that challenge? And so thinking, you know, targeted grazing

07:23opportunities could be a really good opportunity for mitigating that grass fire risk. And that

07:27helps our ranchers at the same time, is that correct? Correct. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

07:31I yield back. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman from Puerto Rico is here.

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