Issue Position: Lake Tahoe Restoration Act

Issue Position

Catastrophic fire is the single greatest environmental threat to Lake Tahoe, and yet for many years, the Congressional focus has been on lake clarity. Lake clarity has been improving on its own in recent years -- without congressional action -- suggesting that natural environmental factors have a much greater role than human activity. Meanwhile, by abandoning sound forest management that requires constant thinning of excess timber, the fuel loads in the Tahoe Basin have become extremely dangerous.

For this reason, I introduced HR 3382 as a more focused approach than legislation that has languished in the Senate for years. The principal difference is that the Senate version has no provision for fire prevention -- only vaguely defined environmental goals such as maintaining biological diversity, improving wetland quality, storm water management, trout recovery and climate change and has nothing to do with fire prevention. The House bill is focused on fire prevention by reducing excess fuel loads before they burn. The Senate bill prioritizes expenditures, and fire prevention isn't even on the list! The closest thing to it, "Forest Health" is priority 7 AFTER air quality, fisheries, noise, recreation, scenic resources and soil conservation.

Either we're serious about fire prevention or we're not. The House bill is. The Senate bill is not.

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