Public lands bill passes through house committee

Fire is obviously a hot topic in California, and also taken very seriously in our nation’s capitol. In a time when new policy approaches need to be implemented to protect our communities and local wildlands, Congress members and their staff were sincere in hearing about the Helena and Carr fires and the deep trauma that has become embedded in our communities concerning fire.   

HR 2250 is timely in that it promotes fuel breaks and forest restoration across more than 700,000 acres, especially alongside roads and within communities as well as improving coordination of fire management across the multiple forest jurisdictions that comprise our local public lands. The acreage proposed for fuels reduction is over twice as much as the proposed wilderness acreage in the bill. This is a great opportunity to create “green jobs” that benefit the land and people of Trinity County.

Additionally, the bill will help fully restore the hundreds of sites on public lands affected by illegal marijuana cultivation. Illegal grows create huge messes with tons of trash and toxic chemicals. The bill promotes cleanup of the vast backlog of abandoned grow sites that pockmark our local forests.

The areas proposed for wilderness protection represents some of the wildest remaining places in Northwest California. Protecting them as wilderness will put them on the map and encourage people to visit them. Over time, especially as word gets out, this will help to attract tourists. The streams proposed for Wild & Scenic are all critical for the survival of salmon, steelhead trout, and other endangered species. In our region, these fish are extremely important for Native American cultural life. Salmon and steelhead fishing is also an important part of our local economy.

Huffman has spent five-plus years asking people what should be included. The collaborative dialogue has been seen here on the ground in Trinity County as well as within our U.S. Congress as demonstrated by Rep. John Curtis, a Republican from Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. He went on the record to state that there were a number of things he was impressed with concerning the bill and highlighted the significance of the local support in Huffman’s district.  

“It’s clear to me that he’s worked hard to build consensus and made changes to his bill that he may not otherwise do to build that consensus and listen to many stakeholders, including myself, and my thoughts on the bill. I want to encourage that. I want to show that we can work across the aisle even when we have different opinions, and that we can support each other on important public lands issues.”

Huffman’s response to Rep. Curtis’ support was that the bill “started out as a proposal that was just wilderness and I wanted to do something different. It evolved into something that was very unique, I think, in terms of a public land bill because it does include fire resiliency, it does include areas where there will be working forest activity, some trees will be cut and logged and milled as a result of this bill. But it also does include wilderness and recreation and other values. And we have worked very, very hard to thread that needle of local support.”  

Huffman has visited Trinity County multiple times over the past six years, hosting pubic meetings, touring public lands, and sending his staff to meet with Trinity County stakeholders numerous times. The public opinion he has garnered over the years has helped to craft the bill as closely to the residents of Trinity County’s values as he possibly could, changing or cutting parts out of the bill he wouldn’t have ordinarily done without the feedback.  

He’s worked closely with the Board of Supervisors and although not everyone is in agreement, he and his staff have offered a strong sense of collaboration. The most recent change he has made in response to feedback from people in Trinity County was to make it possible to graze livestock on public lands in southern Trinity County for the purpose of fuel reduction and weed control.

For my fellow Trinity County community members, know that we are not lost in the vastness of our large country at our nation’s capitol. During the house committee hearing, we were considered sincerely in terms of decisions made that affect our quality of life.  

Now that the bill has passed through the House Committee on Natural Resources, the next step will be to pass through the House floor, and on to the Senate. Timing of the bill’s passage is unclear at this point.