Letters

In two letters, the National Association of State Foresters has offered its support for the "Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act of 2020," a bipartisan bill that sets out to streamline collaborative wildfire risk reduction projects and accelerate forest management near existing roads, trails, and transmission lines. "Forests across the United States need more active [read more]

Today, the National Association of State Foresters expressed its appreciation to Senator John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, for introducing "Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2020," a bill that would accomplish many of the recommendations found in NASF's 2020 policy statement, "Improving the Effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act." NASF [read more]

The National Association of State Foresters signed onto a letter today in support of the bipartisan REPLANT Act (S. 4357 and H.R. 7843). The bill would allow the USDA Forest Service to address the 8 million acres of national forests in need of reforestation by removing an existing cap on the Reforestation Trust Fund. The [read more]

In a letter to the director of the National Economic Council and a senior advisor to the president on Wednesday, the National Association of State Foresters and dozens of other forestry associations requested that H-2B non-immigrant laborers (who perform essential forestry-related work) be excluded from any presidential proclamations or orders restricting immigrant or non-immigrant labor [read more]

In a letter to House and Senate leadership yesterday, the National Association of State Foresters joined with dozens of diverse organizations, businesses, professional societies, state agencies, and tribal nations to request that the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (HR 3742) be included in a future economic recovery package. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act will put [read more]

Next week, members of the Senate will meet for a cloture vote on S. 3422, the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), and are set to begin debate on the bill Monday evening. NASF and other members of the Forest Climate Working Group have already sent a letter in support of the GAOA. GAOA would permanently [read more]

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released a $500-billion, five-year surface transportation bill, called the Invest in America Act. If passed, this legislation would substantially increase (by 40%) mandatory funding for USDA Forest Service road maintenance from the current level of $19 million annually to $50 million annually. The legislation would also [read more]

In early April, the National Association of State Foresters sent a letter to Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski recommending an increase in funding to two specific federal programs to ensure wildland firefighters have critical access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 tests. Recommendation 2: Provide emergency supplemental funding for the State Fire Assistance (SFA) program [read more]

On April 3, the National Association of State Foresters penned a letter to Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska thanking her for recognizing the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic on wildland fire management and urging Secretaries Sonny Perdue and David Bernhardt to  adopt an aggressive initial attack strategy for the 2020 wildfire season. Read NASF's letter [read more]

With a letter sent on April 2, NASF was among several dozen organizations that urged congressional appropriations leadership to protect farm bill conservation program FY21 mandatory funding and provide robust discretionary funding and support for USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service field staff. The full text of the letter is linked below.