IB
Union Calendar No. 757
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 2989
[Report No. 118–927, Part I]
To improve the health and resiliency of giant sequoias, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL28, 2023
Mr. M
CCARTHY(for himself, Mr. PETERS, Mr. WESTERMAN, Mr. COSTA, Mr.
V
ALADAO, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr.
K
ILEY, Mr. HARDERof California, Mr. OBERNOLTE, Mr. BERA, Mrs.
K
IMof California, Mr. THOMPSONof California, Mr. ISSA, Mr. VARGAS,
Mrs. S
TEEL, Mr. CORREA, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. LAMALFA,
Mr. M
ULLIN, Mr. MIKEGARCIAof California, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr.
D
UARTE, Mr. BISHOPof Georgia, Mr. THOMPSONof Pennsylvania, Ms.
L
EEof Nevada, Mrs. RODGERSof Washington, Mr. GOLDENof Maine,
Mr. G
RAVESof Louisiana, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. TIFFANY, Ms. KUSTER, Mr.
C
URTIS, Mr. PHILLIPS, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Ms. ROSS, Mr. STAUBER, Mr.
M
OULTON, Mr. BENTZ, Mr. CUELLAR, Mr. FULCHER, Mrs. TORRESof
California, Mr. L
AMBORN, Mrs. PELTOLA, Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS, Mr.
G
UTHRIE, Mr. BERGMAN, Mr. RUTHERFORD, and Mr. MOOREof Utah)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Natural 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 com-
mittee concerned
D
ECEMBER18, 2024
Additional sponsors: Mr. W
EBSTERof Florida, Mr. JACKSONof North Caro-
lina, Mrs. R
ADEWAGEN, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. LAWLER, Ms. CARAVEO,
and Mr. F
ONG
D
ECEMBER18, 2024
Reported from the Committee on Natural Resources with an amendment
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[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
DECEMBER18, 2024
Committee on Agriculture discharged; committed to the Committee of the
Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on April 28, 2023]
A BILL
To improve the health and resiliency of giant sequoias, and
for other purposes.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Save Our Sequoias Act’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.— 6
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
Sec. 3. Shared stewardship agreement for giant sequoias.
Sec. 4. Giant sequoia lands coalition.
Sec. 5. Giant sequoia health and resiliency assessment.
Sec. 6. Giant sequoia emergency response.
Sec. 7. Giant sequoia reforestation and rehabilitation strategy.
Sec. 8. Giant sequoia strike teams.
Sec. 9. Giant sequoia collaborative restoration grants.
Sec. 10. Good neighbor authority for giant sequoias.
Sec. 11. Stewardship contracting for giant sequoias.
Sec. 12. Giant Sequoia Emergency Protection Program and Fund.
Sec. 13. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
7
In this Act: 8
(1) A
SSESSMENT.—The term ‘‘Assessment’’ 9
means the Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency As-10
sessment required by section 5. 11
(2) C
OALITION.—The term ‘‘Coalition’’ means 12
the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition codified under 13
section 4(a). 14
(3) C
OLLABORATIVE PROCESS .—The term ‘‘col-15
laborative process’’ means a process relating to the 16
management of covered National Forest system lands 17
or covered public lands by which a project or forest 18
management activity is developed and implemented 19
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by the Secretary concerned through collaboration with 1
multiple interested persons representing diverse inter-2
ests. 3
(4) C
OVERED NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM 4
LANDS.—The term ‘‘covered National Forest System 5
lands’’ means the proclaimed National Forest System 6
lands reserved or withdrawn from the public domain 7
of the United States covering the Sequoia National 8
Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument, Si-9
erra National Forest, and Tahoe National Forest. 10
(5) C
OVERED PUBLIC LANDS .—The term ‘‘cov-11
ered public lands’’ means— 12
(A) the Case Mountain Extensive Recre-13
ation Management Area in California managed 14
by the Bureau of Land Management; and 15
(B) Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia 16
National Park, and Yosemite National Park in 17
California managed by the National Park Serv-18
ice. 19
(6) G
IANT SEQUOIA.—The term ‘‘giant sequoia’’ 20
means a tree of the species Sequoiadendron 21
giganteum. 22
(7) G
ROVE-SPECIFIC HAZARDOUS FUELS REDUC -23
TION PLAN.—The term ‘‘grove-specific hazardous fuels 24
reduction plan’’ means a plan developed by the appli-25
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cable land management agency prior to conducting 1
an analysis under the National Environmental Policy 2
Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) to address hazardous 3
fuels in 1 or more giant sequoia groves. 4
(8) P
ROTECTION PROJECT.—The term ‘‘Protec-5
tion Project’’ means a Giant Sequoia Protection 6
Project carried out under section 6. 7
(9) R
EFORESTATION.—The term ‘‘reforestation’’ 8
means the act of renewing tree cover, taking into con-9
sideration species composition and resilience, by es-10
tablishing young trees through natural regeneration, 11
artificial or natural regeneration with site prepara-12
tion, planting or direct seeding, or vegetation com-13
petition control following artificial or natural regen-14
eration. 15
(10) R
EHABILITATION.—The term ‘‘rehabilita-16
tion’’ means any action taken during the 5-year pe-17
riod beginning on the last day of a wildland fire to 18
repair or improve fire-impacted lands which are un-19
likely to recover to management-approved conditions. 20
(11) R
ELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES .— 21
The term ‘‘relevant Congressional Committees’’ 22
means— 23
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(A) the Committees on Natural Resources, 1
Agriculture, and Appropriations of the House of 2
Representatives; and 3
(B) the Committees on Energy and Natural 4
Resources, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, 5
and Appropriations of the Senate. 6
(12) R
ESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL.—The term ‘‘re-7
sponsible official’’ means an employee of the Depart-8
ment of the Interior or Forest Service who has the au-9
thority to make and implement a decision on a pro-10
posed action. 11
(13) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 12
the Secretary of the Interior. 13
(14) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-14
retary concerned’’ means— 15
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-16
spect to covered National Forest System lands, or 17
their designee; and 18
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-19
spect to covered public lands, or their designee. 20
(15) S
TRATEGY.—The term ‘‘Strategy’’ means 21
the Giant Sequoia Reforestation and Rehabilitation 22
Strategy established under section 7. 23
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(16) STRIKE TEAM.—The term ‘‘Strike Team’’ 1
means a Giant Sequoia Strike Team established 2
under section 8. 3
(17) T
RIBE.—The term ‘‘Tribe’’ means the Tule 4
River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation, 5
California. 6
SEC. 3. SHARED STEWARDSHIP AGREEMENT FOR GIANT SE-7
QUOIAS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after receiv-9
ing a request from the Governor of the State of California 10
or the Tribe, the Secretary shall enter into or expand an 11
existing shared stewardship agreement or enter into a simi-12
lar agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture, the Gov-13
ernor of the State of California, and the Tribe to jointly 14
carry out the short-term and long-term management and 15
conservation of giant sequoias. 16
(b) P
ARTICIPATION.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Secretary has not re-18
ceived a request from the Governor of the State of 19
California or the Tribe under subsection (a) before the 20
date that is 90 days after the date of enactment of 21
this Act, the Secretary shall enter into the agreement 22
under subsection (a) and jointly implement such 23
agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture. 24
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(2) FUTURE PARTICIPATION.—If the Secretary 1
receives a request from the Governor of the State of 2
California or the Tribe any time after entering into 3
the agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture under 4
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall accept the Gov-5
ernor of the State of California or the Tribe as a 6
party to such agreement. 7
SEC. 4. GIANT SEQUOIA LANDS COALITION. 8
(a) C
ODIFICATION.—The Coalition is the entity estab-9
lished under the charter titled ‘‘Giant Sequoia Lands Coali-10
tion Charter’’ (or successor charter) signed during the pe-11
riod beginning June 2, 2022 and ending August 2, 2022 12
by each of the following: 13
(1) The National Park Service, representing Se-14
quoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. 15
(2) The National Park Service, representing Yo-16
semite National Park. 17
(3) The Forest Service, representing Sequoia Na-18
tional Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument. 19
(4) The Forest Service, representing Sierra Na-20
tional Forest. 21
(5) The Forest Service, representing Tahoe Na-22
tional Forest. 23
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(6) The Bureau of Land Management, rep-1
resenting Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Man-2
agement Area. 3
(7) The Tribe, representing the Tule River In-4
dian Reservation. 5
(8) The State of California, representing 6
Calaveras Big Trees State Park. 7
(9) The State of California, representing Moun-8
tain Home Demonstration State Forest. 9
(10) The University of California, Berkeley, rep-10
resenting Whitaker’s Research Forest. 11
(11) The County of Tulare, California, rep-12
resenting Balch Park. 13
(b) D
UTIES.—In addition to the duties specified in the 14
charter referenced in subsection (a), the Coalition shall— 15
(1) produce the Assessment under section 5; 16
(2) observe implementation, and provide policy 17
recommendations to the Secretary concerned, with re-18
spect to— 19
(A) Protection Projects carried out under 20
section 6; and 21
(B) the Strategy established under section 7; 22
(3) facilitate collaboration and coordination on 23
Protection Projects, particularly projects that cross 24
jurisdictional boundaries; 25
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(4) facilitate information sharing, including best 1
available science as described in section 5(c) and 2
mapping resources; and 3
(5) support the development and dissemination 4
of educational materials and programs that inform 5
the public about the threats to the health and resil-6
iency of giant sequoia groves and actions being taken 7
to reduce the risk to such groves from high-severity 8
wildfire, insects, and drought. 9
(c) A
DMINISTRATIVESUPPORT, TECHNICALSERVICES, 10
ANDSTAFFSUPPORT.—The Secretary shall make personnel 11
of the Department of the Interior available to the Coalition 12
for administrative support, technical services, development 13
and dissemination of educational materials, and staff sup-14
port that the Secretary determines necessary to carry out 15
this section. 16
SEC. 5. GIANT SEQUOIA HEALTH AND RESILIENCY ASSESS-17
MENT. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after the 19
date of the enactment of this Act, the Coalition shall submit 20
to the relevant Congressional Committees a Giant Sequoia 21
Health and Resiliency Assessment that, based on the best 22
available science— 23
(1) identifies— 24
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(A) each giant sequoia grove that has expe-1
rienced a— 2
(i) stand-replacing disturbance; or 3
(ii) disturbance but continues to have 4
living giant sequoias within the grove, in-5
cluding identifying the tree mortality and 6
regeneration of giant sequoias within such 7
grove; 8
(B) each giant sequoia grove that is at high 9
risk of experiencing a stand-replacing disturb-10
ance; 11
(C) lands located near giant sequoia groves 12
that are at risk of experiencing high-severity 13
wildfires that could adversely impact such giant 14
sequoia groves; and 15
(D) each giant sequoia grove that has expe-16
rienced a disturbance and is unlikely to natu-17
rally regenerate and is in need of reforestation; 18
(2) analyzes the resiliency of each giant sequoia 19
grove to threats, such as— 20
(A) high-severity wildfire; 21
(B) insects, including beetle kill; and 22
(C) drought; 23
(3) with respect to Protection Projects, proposes 24
a list of highest priority Protection Projects to be car-25
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ried out under section 6, giving priority to projects 1
located on lands identified under subparagraphs (B) 2
and (C) of subsection (a)(1); 3
(4) examines how historical, Tribal, or current 4
approaches to wildland fire suppression and forest 5
management activities across various jurisdictions 6
have impacted the health and resiliency of giant se-7
quoia groves with respect to— 8
(A) high-severity wildfires; 9
(B) insects, including beetle kill; and 10
(C) drought; and 11
(5) includes program and policy recommenda-12
tions that address— 13
(A) Federal and State policies that impede 14
activities to improve the health and resiliency of 15
giant sequoias and proposed policy changes to 16
address such impediments; 17
(B) new Federal and State policies nec-18
essary to increase the pace and scale of treat-19
ments that improve the health and resiliency of 20
giant sequoias; 21
(C) options to enhance communication, co-22
ordination, and collaboration, particularly for 23
cross-boundary projects, to improve the health 24
and resiliency of giant sequoias; and 25
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(D) research gaps that should be addressed 1
to improve the best available science on the giant 2
sequoias. 3
(b) A
NNUALUPDATES.—Not later than 1 year after 4
the submission of the Assessment under subsection (a), and 5
annually thereafter, the Coalition shall submit an updated 6
Assessment to the relevant Congressional Committees that— 7
(1) includes any new data, information, or best 8
available science that has changed or become available 9
since the previous Assessment was submitted; 10
(2) with respect to Protection Projects— 11
(A) includes information on the number of 12
Protection Projects initiated the previous year 13
and the estimated timeline for completing those 14
projects; 15
(B) includes information on the number of 16
Protection Projects planned in the upcoming 17
year and the estimated timeline for completing 18
those projects; 19
(C) provides status updates and long-term 20
monitoring reports on giant sequoia groves after 21
the completion of Protection Projects; 22
(D) if the Secretary concerned failed to re-23
duce hazardous fuels in at least 3 giant sequoia 24
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groves in the previous year, a written expla-1
nation that includes— 2
(i) a detailed explanation of what im-3
pediments resulted in failing to reduce haz-4
ardous fuels in at least 3 giant sequoia 5
groves; 6
(ii) a detailed explanation of what ac-7
tions the Secretary concerned is taking to 8
ensure that hazardous fuels are reduced in 9
at least 3 giant sequoia groves the following 10
year; and 11
(iii) recommendations to Congress on 12
any policies that need to be changed to as-13
sist the Secretary concerned in reducing 14
hazardous fuels in giant sequoia groves; and 15
(3) with respect to reforestation and rehabilita-16
tion of giant sequoias— 17
(A) contains updates on the implementation 18
of the Strategy under section 7, including grove- 19
level data on reforestation and rehabilitation ac-20
tivities; and 21
(B) provides status updates and monitoring 22
reports on giant sequoia groves that have experi-23
enced natural or artificial regeneration as part 24
of the Strategy under section 7. 25
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(c) DASHBOARD.— 1
(1) R
EQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN .—The Coalition 2
shall create and maintain a website that— 3
(A) publishes the Assessment, annual up-4
dates to the Assessment, and other educational 5
materials developed by the Coalition; 6
(B) contains searchable information about 7
individual giant sequoia groves, including the— 8
(i) resiliency of such groves to threats 9
described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of sub-10
section (a); 11
(ii) Protection Projects that have been 12
proposed, initiated, or completed in such 13
groves; and 14
(iii) reforestation and rehabilitation 15
activities that have been proposed, initiated, 16
or completed in such groves; and 17
(C) maintains a searchable database to 18
track— 19
(i) the status of Federal environmental 20
reviews and authorizations for specific Pro-21
tection Projects and reforestation and reha-22
bilitation activities; and 23
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(ii) the projected cost of Protection 1
Projects and reforestation and rehabilita-2
tion activities. 3
(2) S
EARCHABLE DATABASE .—The Coalition 4
shall include information on the status of Protection 5
Projects in the searchable database created under 6
paragraph (1)(C), including— 7
(A) a comprehensive permitting timetable; 8
(B) the status of the compliance of each lead 9
agency, cooperating agency, and participating 10
agency with the permitting timetable; 11
(C) any modifications of the permitting 12
timetable required under subparagraph (A), in-13
cluding an explanation as to why the permitting 14
timetable was modified; and 15
(D) information about project-related public 16
meetings, public hearings, and public comment 17
periods, which shall be presented in English and 18
the predominant language of the community or 19
communities most affected by the project, as that 20
information becomes available. 21
(d) B
ESTAVAILABLESCIENCE.—In utilizing the best 22
available science for the Assessment, the Coalition shall in-23
clude— 24
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(1) data and peer-reviewed research from aca-1
demic institutions with a demonstrated history of 2
studying giant sequoias and with experience ana-3
lyzing distinct management strategies to improve 4
giant sequoia resiliency; 5
(2) traditional ecological knowledge from the 6
Tribe related to improving the health and resiliency 7
of giant sequoia groves; and 8
(3) data from Federal, State, Tribal, and local 9
governments or agencies. 10
(e) T
ECHNOLOGYIMPROVEMENTS.—In carrying out 11
this section, the Secretary may enter into memorandums 12
of understanding or agreements with other Federal agencies 13
or departments, State or local governments, Tribal govern-14
ments, private entities, or academic institutions to improve, 15
with respect to the Assessment, the use and integration of— 16
(1) advanced remote sensing and geospatial tech-17
nologies; 18
(2) statistical modeling and analysis; or 19
(3) any other technology the Secretary deter-20
mines will benefit the quality of information used in 21
the Assessment. 22
(f) P
LANNING.—The Coalition shall make information 23
from this Assessment available to the Secretary concerned 24
and State of California to integrate into the— 25
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(1) State of California’s Wildfire and Forest Re-1
silience Action Plan; 2
(2) Forest Service’s 10-year Wildfire Crisis 3
Strategy (or successor plan); and 4
(3) Department of the Interior’s Wildfire Risk 5
Five-Year Monitoring, Maintenance, and Treatment 6
Plan (or successor plan). 7
(g) R
ELATION TO THE NATIONALENVIRONMENTAL 8
P
OLICYACT OF1969.—The development and submission of 9
the Assessment under subsection (a) shall not be subject to 10
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 11
4321 et seq.). 12
SEC. 6. GIANT SEQUOIA EMERGENCY RESPONSE. 13
(a) E
MERGENCYRESPONSE TOPROTECTGIANTSE-14
QUOIAS.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.— 16
(A) E
MERGENCY DETERMINATION .—Con-17
gress determines that— 18
(i) an emergency exists on covered pub-19
lic lands and covered National Forest Sys-20
tem lands that makes it necessary to carry 21
out Protection Projects that take needed ac-22
tions to respond to the threat of wildfires, 23
insects, and drought to giant sequoias; and 24
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(ii) Protection Projects are necessary to 1
control the immediate impacts of the emer-2
gency described in clause (i) and are needed 3
to mitigate harm to life, property, or im-4
portant natural or cultural resources on 5
covered public lands and covered National 6
Forest System lands. 7
(B) A
PPLICATION.—The emergency deter-8
mination established under subparagraph (A) 9
shall apply to all covered public lands and cov-10
ered National Forest System lands. 11
(C) E
XPIRATION.—The emergency deter-12
mination established under subparagraph (A) 13
shall expire on the date that is 7 years after the 14
date of the enactment of this Act. 15
(2) I
MPLEMENTATION.—While the emergency de-16
termination established under subsection (a) is in ef-17
fect, the following shall apply: 18
(A) The following shall have the force and 19
effect of law: 20
(i) Section 220.4(b) of title 36, Code of 21
Federal Regulations (as in effect July 21, 22
2022), with respect to covered National For-23
est System lands. 24
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(ii) Section 46.150 of title 43, Code of 1
Federal Regulations (as in effect October 12, 2
2022), with respect to covered public lands. 3
(iii) Section 402.05 of title 50, Code of 4
Federal Regulations (as in effect July 21, 5
2022), with respect to covered National For-6
est System lands and covered public lands. 7
(iv) Section 800.12 of title 36, Code of 8
Federal Regulations (as in effect July 21, 9
2022), with respect to covered National For-10
est System lands and covered public lands. 11
(B) A responsible official may carry out a 12
Protection Project described by paragraph (4) be-13
fore initiating— 14
(i) an analysis under section 102 of 15
the National Environmental Policy Act of 16
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332); 17
(ii) consultation under section 7 of the 18
Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 19
1536); and 20
(iii) consultation under section 106 of 21
the National Historic Preservation Act (16 22
U.S.C. 470(f)). 23
(C) The rules established under subsections 24
(d) and (e) section 40807 of the Infrastructure 25
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Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592c(d) 1
and (e)) shall apply with respect to Protection 2
Projects by substituting ‘‘Protection Projects’’ for 3
‘‘authorized emergency action under this section’’ 4
each place it appears in such subsections. 5
(D) Protection Projects shall be subject to 6
the requirements of section 106 of title I of the 7
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 8
U.S.C. 6511 et seq.). 9
(3) P
ROTECTION PROJECTS.—The responsible of-10
ficial shall carry out the following forest management 11
activities, consistent with applicable grove-specific 12
hazardous fuels reduction plans or activities rec-13
ommend by the Assessment under section 5, as Protec-14
tion Projects under the emergency determination 15
under this section: 16
(A) Conducting hazardous fuels manage-17
ment, including mechanical thinning, mastica-18
tion, and prescribed burning. 19
(B) Removing hazard trees, dead trees, 20
dying trees, or trees at risk of dying, as deter-21
mined by the responsible official. 22
(C) Removing trees to address overstocking 23
or crowding in a forest stand, consistent with the 24
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appropriate basal area of the forest stand as de-1
termined by the responsible official. 2
(D) Activities included in the applicable 3
grove-specific hazardous fuels reduction plan. 4
(E) Using chemical treatments to address 5
insects and disease and control vegetation com-6
petition. 7
(F) Any combination of activities described 8
in this paragraph. 9
(4) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 10
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Protection Projects car-11
ried out under paragraph (3) and reforestation 12
and rehabilitation activities carried out under 13
this Act that are described by subparagraph (D) 14
are a category of actions hereby designated as 15
being categorically excluded from the prepara-16
tion of an environmental assessment or an envi-17
ronmental impact statement under section 102 of 18
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 19
(42 U.S.C. 4332). 20
(B) A
VAILABILITY.—The Secretary con-21
cerned shall use the categorical exclusion estab-22
lished under subparagraph (A) in accordance 23
with this section. 24
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(C) INTERAGENCY COOPERATION .—Congress 1
finds that Protection Projects carried out under 2
this section are consistent with improving the 3
health and resiliency of critical habitat for 4
threatened and endangered species, including the 5
Pacific fisher and California spotted owl. 6
(D) R
EQUIREMENTS.—A Protection Project 7
or reforestation or rehabilitation activity is de-8
scribed by this subparagraph if such Protection 9
Project or reforestation or rehabilitation activ-10
ity— 11
(i) covers an area of no more than— 12
(I) 2,000 acres within giant se-13
quoia groves where a grove-specific 14
hazardous fuels reduction plan has 15
been developed by the relevant land 16
management agency or on lands iden-17
tified under section 5(a)(1)(B); and 18
(II) 3,000 acres on lands identi-19
fied under section 5(a)(1)(C); and 20
(ii) was— 21
(I) proposed by the Assessment 22
under section 5(a)(3); 23
(II) developed through a collabo-24
rative process; or 25
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(III) proposed by a resource advi-1
sory committee (as defined in section 2
201 of the Secure Rural Schools and 3
Community Self-Determination Act of 4
2000 (16 U.S.C. 7121)); and 5
(iii) occurs on Federal land or non- 6
Federal land with the consent of the non- 7
Federal landowner. 8
(E) U
SE OF OTHER AUTHORITIES .—To the 9
maximum extent practicable, the Secretary con-10
cerned shall use the authorities provided under 11
this section in combination with other authori-12
ties to carry out Protection Projects, including— 13
(i) good neighbor agreements entered 14
into under section 8206 of the Agricultural 15
Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a); and 16
(ii) stewardship contracting projects 17
entered into under section 604 of the 18
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 19
U.S.C. 6591c). 20
(F) S
AVINGS CLAUSE.—With respect to joint 21
Protection Projects and reforestation and reha-22
bilitation activities involving the Tribe, nothing 23
in this section shall be construed to add any ad-24
ditional regulatory requirements onto the Tribe. 25
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(b) IMPLEMENTATION.—To the maximum extent prac-1
ticable, the Secretary concerned shall reduce hazardous fuels 2
in no fewer than 3 giant sequoia groves each year. 3
SEC. 7. GIANT SEQUOIA REFORESTATION AND REHABILITA-4
TION STRATEGY. 5
(a) R
EFORESTATION AND REHABILITATIONSTRAT-6
EGY.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after 8
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary, 9
in consultation with the Coalition, shall develop and 10
implement a strategy, to be known as the Giant Se-11
quoia Reforestation and Rehabilitation Strategy, to 12
enhance the reforestation and rehabilitation of giant 13
sequoia groves that— 14
(A) identifies giant sequoia groves in need 15
of natural or artificial regeneration, giving high-16
est priority to groves identified under section 17
5(a)(1)(A)(i); 18
(B) creates a priority list of reforestation 19
and rehabilitation activities; 20
(C) identifies and addresses— 21
(i) barriers to reforestation or rehabili-22
tation including— 23
(I) regulatory and funding bar-24
riers; 25
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(II) seedling shortages or related 1
nursery infrastructure capacity con-2
straints; 3
(III) labor and workforce short-4
ages; 5
(IV) technology and science gaps; 6
and 7
(V) site preparation challenges; 8
(ii) potential public-private partner-9
ship opportunities to complete high-priority 10
reforestation or rehabilitation projects; 11
(iii) a timeline for addressing the 12
backlog of reforestation for giant sequoias in 13
the 10-year period after the agreement is 14
entered into under section 3; and 15
(iv) strategies to ensure genetic diver-16
sity across giant sequoia groves; and 17
(D) includes program and policy rec-18
ommendations needed to improve the efficiency 19
or effectiveness of the Strategy. 20
(2) A
SSESSMENT.—The Secretary may incor-21
porate the Strategy into the Assessment under section 22
5. 23
(b) P
RIORITYREFORESTATIONPROJECTSAMEND-24
MENT.—Section 3(e)(4)(C)(ii)(I) of the Forest and Range- 25
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land Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1
1601(e)(4)(C)(ii)(I)) is amended— 2
(1) in item (bb), by striking ‘‘and’’; 3
(2) in item (cc), by striking the period and in-4
serting ‘‘; and’’; and 5
(3) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(dd) shall include reforest-7
ation and rehabilitation activities 8
conducted under section 7 of the 9
Save Our Sequoias Act.’’. 10
(c) I
MPLEMENTATION.—Section 4(d)(1) of the Wilder-11
ness Act (16 U.S.C. 1133(d)) is amended by inserting 12
‘‘Nothing in this Act precludes reforestation (as defined in 13
section 2 of the Save our Sequoias Act) activities to reestab-14
lish giant sequoias following a wildfire.’’ after the period 15
at the end. 16
SEC. 8. GIANT SEQUOIA STRIKE TEAMS. 17
(a) G
IANTSEQUOIASTRIKETEAMS.— 18
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary concerned 19
shall each establish a Giant Sequoia Strike Team to 20
assist the Secretary concerned with the implementa-21
tion of— 22
(A) primarily, section 6; and 23
(B) secondarily, section 7. 24
(2) D
UTIES.—Each Strike Team shall— 25
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(A) assist the Secretary concerned with any 1
reviews, including analysis under the National 2
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 3
4321 et seq.), consultations under the National 4
Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 5
470 et seq.), and consultations under the Endan-6
gered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 7
seq.); 8
(B) implement any necessary site prepara-9
tion work in advance of or as part of a Protec-10
tion Project or reforestation or rehabilitation ac-11
tivity; 12
(C) implement Protection Projects under 13
section 6; and 14
(D) implement reforestation or rehabilita-15
tion activities under section 7. 16
(3) M
EMBERS.—The Secretary concerned may 17
appoint no more than 10 individuals each to serve on 18
a Strike Team comprised of— 19
(A) employees of the Department of the In-20
terior; 21
(B) employees of the Forest Service; 22
(C) private contractors from any nonprofit 23
organization, State government, Tribal Govern-24
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ment, local government, academic institution, or 1
private organization; and 2
(D) volunteers from any nonprofit organi-3
zation, State government, Tribal Government, 4
local government, academic institution, or pri-5
vate organization. 6
SEC. 9. GIANT SEQUOIA COLLABORATIVE RESTORATION 7
GRANTS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary, in consultation with 9
the parties to the agreement under section 3, shall establish 10
a program to award grants to eligible entities to advance, 11
facilitate, or improve giant sequoia health and resiliency. 12
(b) E
LIGIBLEENTITY.—The Secretary may award 13
grants under this section to any nonprofit organization, 14
Tribal Government, local government, academic institution, 15
or private organization to help advance, facilitate, or im-16
prove giant sequoia health and resiliency. 17
(c) P
RIORITY.—In awarding grants under this section, 18
the Secretary shall give priority to eligible entities that— 19
(1) primarily, are likely to have the greatest im-20
pact on giant sequoia health and resiliency; and 21
(2) secondarily— 22
(A) are small businesses or tribal entities, 23
particularly in rural areas; and 24
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(B) create or support jobs, particularly in 1
rural areas. 2
(d) U
SE OFGRANTFUNDS.—Funds from grants 3
awarded under this section shall be used to— 4
(1) create, expand, or develop markets for haz-5
ardous fuels removed under section 6, including mar-6
kets for biomass and biochar; 7
(2) facilitate hazardous fuel removal under sec-8
tion 6, including by reducing the cost of transporting 9
hazardous fuels removed as part of a Protection 10
Project; 11
(3) expand, enhance, develop, or create facilities 12
or land that can store or process hazardous fuels re-13
moved under section 6; 14
(4) establish, develop, expand, enhance, or im-15
prove nursery capacity or infrastructure necessary to 16
facilitate the Strategy established under section 7; or 17
(5) support tribal management and conservation 18
of giant sequoias, including funding for tribal historic 19
preservation officers. 20
SEC. 10. GOOD NEIGHBOR AUTHORITY FOR GIANT SE-21
QUOIAS. 22
Section 8206 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 23
U.S.C. 2113a) is amended— 24
(1) in subsection (a)— 25
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(A) in paragraph (3)(A)— 1
(i) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 2
the end; 3
(ii) by redesignating clause (ii) as 4
clause (iii); 5
(iii) by inserting after clause (i) the 6
following: 7
‘‘(ii) Kings Canyon National Park, Se-8
quoia National Park, and Yosemite Na-9
tional Park; or’’; 10
(B) in paragraph (4)(A)— 11
(i) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 12
the end; 13
(ii) by redesignating clause (iii) as 14
clause (iv); 15
(iii) by inserting after clause (ii) the 16
following: 17
‘‘(iii) activities conducted under sec-18
tion 6 of the Save Our Sequoias Act;’’; 19
(iv) in clause (iv), as so redesignated, 20
by striking the period at the end and insert-21
ing ‘‘; or’’; and 22
(v) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(v) any combination of activities 24
specified in clauses (i) through (iv).’’. 25
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(C) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘or In-1
dian tribe’’; and 2
(D) in paragraph (10)(B) by striking 3
‘‘land.’’ and inserting ‘‘land, Kings Canyon Na-4
tional Park, Sequoia National Park, and Yosem-5
ite National Park.’’; and 6
(2) in subsection (b)— 7
(A) in paragraph (1)(A), by inserting ‘‘, In-8
dian tribe,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; 9
(B) by amending paragraph (2)(C) to read 10
as follows: 11
‘‘(C) T
REATMENT OF REVENUE .— 12
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Funds received 13
from the sale of timber by a Governor, an 14
Indian tribe, or a county under a good 15
neighbor agreement shall be retained and 16
used by the Governor, Indian tribe, or coun-17
ty, as applicable— 18
‘‘(I) to carry out authorized res-19
toration services under such good 20
neighbor agreement; and 21
‘‘(II) if there are funds remaining 22
after carrying out the services under 23
clause (i), to carry out authorized res-24
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toration services within the State 1
under other good neighbor agreements. 2
‘‘(ii) S
PECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN NA -3
TIONAL PARKS.—Funds received from the 4
sale of timber by a Governor, an Indian 5
tribe, or a county under a good neighbor 6
agreement carried out within the bound-7
aries of Kings Canyon National Park, Se-8
quoia National Park, or Yosemite National 9
Park shall be retained and used by the Gov-10
ernor, Indian tribe, or county, as applica-11
ble— 12
‘‘(I) to carry out authorized res-13
toration services under such good 14
neighbor agreement; 15
‘‘(II) if there are funds remaining 16
after carrying out the services under 17
clause (i), to carry out authorized res-18
toration services under other good 19
neighbor agreements within the bound-20
aries of the park unit in which the ini-21
tial good neighbor agreement occurred; 22
and 23
‘‘(III) if there are no further good 24
neighbor agreements to carry out under 25
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clause (ii), to transfer to the park unit 1
in which the initial good neighbor 2
agreement occurred to be used for giant 3
sequoia conservation and management. 4
‘‘(iii) T
ERMINATION OF EFFECTIVE -5
NESS.—The authority provided by this sub-6
paragraph terminates effective October 1, 7
2028.’’; 8
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘, In-9
dian tribe,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; and 10
(D) by amending paragraph (4) to read as 11
follows: 12
‘‘(4) A
UTHORIZED RESTORATION SERVICES IN 13
CERTAIN NATIONAL PARKS .—Authorized restoration 14
services occurring in Kings Canyon National Park, 15
Sequoia National Park, and Yosemite National Park 16
shall be carried out in accordance with section 17
100753 of title 54, United States Code.’’. 18
(3) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 19
8206(a) of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 20
2113a(a)) is amended— 21
(A) in paragraph (1)(B), by inserting ‘‘, 22
Indian tribe,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; and 23
(B) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘, In-24
dian tribe,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’. 25
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SEC. 11. STEWARDSHIP CONTRACTING FOR GIANT SE-1
QUOIAS. 2
(a) N
ATIONALPARKSERVICE.—Section 604(a)(2) of 3
the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 4
6591c(c)) is amended to read— 5
‘‘(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘Director’ means the 6
Director of the Bureau of Land Management with re-7
spect to Bureau of Land Management lands and the 8
Director of the National Park Service with respect to 9
lands within Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia 10
National Park, and Yosemite National Park.’’. 11
(b) G
IANTSEQUOIASTEWARDSHIPCONTRACTS.—Sec-12
tion 604(c) of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 13
(16 U.S.C. 6591c(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 14
following: 15
‘‘(8) Promoting the health and resiliency of giant 16
sequoias.’’. 17
SEC. 12. GIANT SEQUOIA EMERGENCY PROTECTION PRO-18
GRAM AND FUND. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 1011 of title 54, United 20
States Code, is amended by inserting at the end the fol-21
lowing: 22
‘‘§ 101123. Giant Sequoia Emergency Protection Pro-23
gram and Fund 24
‘‘(a) G
IANTSEQUOIAEMERGENCYPROTECTIONPRO-25
GRAM.—The National Park Foundation, in coordination 26
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with the National Forest Foundation, shall design and im-1
plement a comprehensive program to assist and promote 2
philanthropic programs of support that benefit— 3
‘‘(1) primarily, the management and conserva-4
tion of giant sequoias on National Park Service and 5
covered National Forest System lands to promote re-6
siliency to wildfires, insects, and drought; and 7
‘‘(2) secondarily, the reforestation of giant se-8
quoias on National Park Service and covered Na-9
tional Forest System lands impacted by wildfire. 10
‘‘(b) G
IANTSEQUOIAEMERGENCY PROTECTION 11
F
UND.—The National Park Foundation, in coordination 12
with the National Forest Foundation, shall establish a joint 13
special account to be known as the Giant Sequoia Emer-14
gency Protection Fund (referred to as ‘the Fund’ in this 15
section), to be administered in support of the program es-16
tablished under subsection (a). 17
‘‘(1) F
UNDS FOR GIANT SEQUOIA EMERGENCY 18
PROTECTION.—The Fund shall consist of any gifts, 19
devises, or bequests that are provided to the National 20
Park Foundation or National Forest Foundation for 21
such purpose. 22
‘‘(2) U
SE OF FUNDS.—Funds shall be available 23
to the National Park Foundation and National Forest 24
Foundation without further appropriation, subject to 25
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the provisions in paragraph (3), for projects and ac-1
tivities approved by the Chief of the Forest Service or 2
the Director of the National Park Service as appro-3
priate, or their designees, to— 4
‘‘(A) primarily, support the management 5
and conservation of giant sequoias on National 6
Park Service and covered National Forest Sys-7
tem lands to promote resiliency to wildfires, in-8
sects, and drought; and 9
‘‘(B) secondarily, support the reforestation 10
of giant sequoias on National Park Service and 11
covered National Forest System lands impacted 12
by wildfire. 13
‘‘(3) T
RIBAL SUPPORT.—Of the funds provided 14
to the National Park Foundation and National Forest 15
Foundation under paragraph (2), not less than 15 16
percent of such funds shall be used to support tribal 17
management and conservation of giant sequoias in-18
cluding funding for tribal historic preservation offi-19
cers. 20
‘‘(c) S
UMMARY.—Beginning 1 year after the date of 21
the enactment of this Act, the National Park Foundation 22
and National Forest Foundation shall include with their 23
annual reports a summary of the status of the program and 24
Fund created under this section that includes— 25
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‘‘(1) a statement of the amounts deposited in the 1
Fund during the fiscal year; 2
‘‘(2) the amount of the balance remaining in the 3
Fund at the end of the fiscal year; and 4
‘‘(3) a description of the program and projects 5
funded during the fiscal year. 6
‘‘(d) C
OVEREDNATIONALFORESTSYSTEMLANDSDE-7
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘covered National Forest 8
System lands’ has the meaning given such term in section 9
2 of the Save Our Sequoias Act. 10
‘‘(e) T
ERMINATION OFEFFECTIVENESS.—The author-11
ity provided by this section shall terminate 7 years after 12
the date of enactment of the Save Our Sequoias Act.’’. 13
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 14
for chapter 1011 of title 54, United States Code, is amended 15
by inserting at the end the following: 16
‘‘101123. Giant Sequoia Emergency Protection Program and Fund.’’.
SEC. 13. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to the availability of appro-18
priations made in advance for such purposes, the Secretary 19
concerned shall allocate up to— 20
(1) $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2024; 21
(2) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 22
(3) $30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 23
through 2028; and 24
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(4) $40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2029 1
through 2030. 2
(b) L
IMITATION.—Of the amounts authorized under 3
subsection (a), not less than 90 percent of funds shall be 4
used to carry out section 6 and section 9 of this Act. 5
(c) S
AVINGSCLAUSE.—Nothing in this Act affects— 6
(1) the allocation of previously appropriated 7
funds from prior fiscal years, consistent with applica-8
ble laws and regulations; and 9
(2) the prerogative of the Secretary concerned to 10
establish Departmental funding priorities, consistent 11
with applicable laws and regulations. 12
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757
118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
H. R. 2989
[Report No. 118–927, Part I]
A BILL
To improve the health and resiliency of giant
sequoias, and for other purposes.
D
ECEMBER
18, 2024
Reported from the Committee on Natural Resources with
an amendment
D
ECEMBER
18, 2024
Committee on Agriculture discharged; committed to the
Committee of the Whole House on the State of the
Union and ordered to be printed
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