Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004
Public Law 108-317 · H.R. 2696 · 108th Congress · began in the House
Signed by George W. Bush (R) on Oct 5, 2004 · Public Lands and Natural Resources
Sponsor: Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ-1)
Cosponsors (6): Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Rep. Scott McInnis,
Passage votes
- HouseVoice vote
- SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes
The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.
Summary
The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.
Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004 - (Sec. 5) Directs the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, to: (1) establish Institutes to promote the use of adaptive ecosystem management to reduce the risk of wildfires and restore the health of forest and woodland ecosystems in the interior West (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah); and (2) assist the Institutes in promoting the use of collaborative processes and adaptive ecosystems management. Requires, initially, the establishment of three Institutes, with: (1) one in Arizona, at Northern Arizona University; (2) one in New Mexico, at New Mexico Highlands University, while engaging the full resources of the consortium of universities represented in the Institute of Natural Resource Analysis and Management; and (3) one in Colorado.
Defines the term "adaptive ecosystem management" to mean a natural resource management process under which planning, implementation, monitoring, research, evaluation, and incorporation of new knowledge are combined into a management approach that: (1) is based on scientific findings and the needs of society; (2) treats management actions as experiments; (3) acknowledges the complexity of these systems and scientific uncertainty; and (4) uses the resulting new knowledge to modify future management methods and policy. Prohibits the definition of such term for the purposes of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974.
Requires each Institute to: (1) develop, conduct research on, transfer, promote, and monitor restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction treatments to reduce the risk of severe wildfires and improve the health of dry forest and woodland ecosystems in the interior West; (2) synthesize and adapt scientific findings from conventional research to implement such fuel reduction treatments on a landscape scale using an adaptive ecosystem management framework; (3) translate for and transfer to affected entities (land managers, stakeholders, concerned citizens, and States of the interior West) any scientific and interdisciplinary knowledge about such fuel reduction treatments; (4) assist affected entities with the design of adaptive management approaches (including monitoring) for the implementation of such fuel reduction treatments; and (5) provide peer-reviewed annual reports.
Requires each Institute to: (1) develop and demonstrate capabilities in the natural, physical, social, and policy sciences, and explicitly integrate those disciplines in the performance of such duties; and (2) develop an annual work plan for review by the Secretary.
Authorizes the Secretary to establish one institute in each of the other interior West States, if after two years, the Secretary finds that the Institute model would be constructive for those States.
(Sec. 6) Provides for cooperation between the Institutes and Federal programs. Encourages cooperation and coordination between Federal programs relating to ecological restoration, wildfire risk reduction, and wildfire management technologies.
(Sec. 7) Requires the Secretary to evaluate and report to specified congressional committees every five years on the programs and activities of each Institute.
(Sec. 8) Authorizes appropriations.
Committees
The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.
Agriculture Committee · House · discharged from, referred toSubcommittee: Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee- Natural Resources Committee · House · markup by, referred to, reported bySubcommittee: Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee
Data notes
A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.
Related bills
1 bill the Library of Congress relates to this one.
H.R. 460Related bill
To establish Institutes to conduct research on the prevention of, and restoration from, wildfires in forest and woodland ecosystems of the interior West.
Data notes
Related bills are identified by the Congressional Research Service, the House and the Senate: companion and identical bills, bills with similar text, bills that were folded into this law, and rules that brought it to the floor. A bill that is itself a public law in this site’s data links here; the others link to Congress.gov.
Timeline
From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 25 actions.
- Oct 5, 2004Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 108-317.
- Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
- Sep 24, 2004FloorFloor · Presented to President.
- Sep 16, 2004FloorFloor · Message on Senate action sent to the House.
- Sep 15, 2004FloorFloor · Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- Mar 29, 2004CalendarCalendar · Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 469.
- CommitteeCommittee · Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Reported by Senator Domenici without amendment. With written report No. 108-252.
- Mar 10, 2004CommitteeCommittee · Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.
- Feb 25, 2004CommitteeCommittee · Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
- Feb 24, 2004FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- FloorFloor · On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.
- FloorFloor · DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 2696.
- FloorFloor · Considered under suspension of the rules.
- FloorFloor · Mr. Renzi moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
- Nov 21, 2003CalendarCalendar · Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 228.
- CommitteeCommittee · Committee on Agriculture discharged.
- CommitteeCommittee · House Committee on Agriculture Granted an extension for further consideration ending not later than Nov. 21, 2003.
- CommitteeCommittee · Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Resources. H. Rept. 108-397, Part I.
- Sep 24, 2003CommitteeCommittee · Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Unanimous Consent.
- CommitteeCommittee · Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
- CommitteeCommittee · Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health Discharged.
- Jul 16, 2003CommitteeCommittee · Referred to the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry.
- CommitteeCommittee · Referred to the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health.
- Jul 10, 2003CommitteeCommittee · Referred to the Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
- IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in House
Data notes
Every action the Library of Congress lists for the bill, from introduction to signing, plus the dated committee hearings. The source lists many steps twice (the chamber’s own entry and the Library of Congress copy, or a presidential and a became-law entry with the same words); those are shown once. Amendments are listed in their own section.
Amendments
No amendments to this bill are on record.
Data notes
Amendments offered to this bill in either chamber, as the Library of Congress records them: each with a status read from its last recorded step: agreed to, rejected, withdrawn, ruled out of order, fell with another amendment, or offered with no vote recorded (most Senate amendments are only ever offered). The wording of each amendment is the source’s. Amendments to amendments and amendments to other bills are not listed.
Official record
The bill’s full text is on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.