TORCH Act

The TORCH Act aims to improve forest management activities by the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk. It establishes new categorical exclusions, expands existing authorities for timber sales, grazing, and vegetation management, modifies good neighbor agreements, and reforms certain administrative requirements under environmental laws.

Sec. 101, Categorical exclusion for high-priority hazard tree activities: Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to create a categorical exclusion for removing hazard trees within 300 feet of certain roads, trails, or recreation sites, limited to projects of 3,000 acres or less, and excluding wilderness and roadless areas.

Sec. 102, Utilizing timber sales for extreme risk reduction: Amends the National Forest Management Act to raise the small timber sale limit from $10,000 to $50,000 and allows the Secretary to sell trees or forest products without appraisal to address extreme risks like wildfire, insects, or drought.

Sec. 103, Utilizing grazing for wildfire risk reduction: Requires the Forest Service to develop a strategy with grazing permit holders to increase livestock grazing for wildfire risk reduction, including targeted grazing, temporary permits, and postfire recovery.

Sec. 104, Amendments to the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003: Extends the authorization for cross-boundary wildfire mitigation projects from 2023 to 2030 and increases the maximum project size for wildfire resilience from 3,000 to 10,000 acres.

Sec. 105, Amendment to fuel breaks: Increases the maximum acreage for fuel break projects under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act from 3,000 to 10,000 acres.

Sec. 201, Modification of revenue and payments under good neighbor agreements: Allows Indian tribes and counties to retain and use timber sale revenue from good neighbor agreements for restoration services, and applies these changes to projects initiated after the 2018 farm bill.

Sec. 301, Vegetation management for electric utility rights-of-way: Expands the hazard tree removal zone from 10 to 50 feet from power lines, requires consultation with private landowners, and sets automatic approval timelines for vegetation management plans.

Sec. 302, Categorical exclusion for electric utility lines rights-of-way: Establishes a categorical exclusion for vegetation management plans and routine activities on electric utility rights-of-way, exempting them from certain environmental and historic preservation laws, but not for permanent roads or in wilderness areas.

Sec. 303, Permits and agreements with electrical utilities: Allows the Secretary of Agriculture to permit electric utilities to cut and remove vegetation near power lines without a separate timber sale, with proceeds from sales going to the Forest Service minus transportation costs.

Sec. 401, Nonapplicability of certain Endangered Species Act consultation requirements: Amends forest and land management planning laws to eliminate the requirement to reinitiate consultation under the Endangered Species Act when new species are listed or new information emerges.

Sec. 402, Amendment to categorical exclusion for collaborative restoration projects: Increases the maximum project size for collaborative restoration categorical exclusions under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act from 3,000 to 10,000 acres.