Senate Agriculture Committee Passes Fix our Forests Act

On October 21, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) during a business meeting. The bill, if passed into law, would require the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to develop and implement a “Seeds of Success” strategy to enhance the domestic seed supply chain. Key features of this plan would include: 

• Coordination effort between other federal agencies, Native American Tribes, and state and local governments to promote the re-seeding of native and fire-resistant vegetation after wildfires. 
• Expanding the nation’s capacity to locally collect, process, and store seed. 
• Simplifying the process of collecting seeds on Federal land. 

The bill now awaits a vote from the full Senate. The House of Representatives passed a similar version of FOFA on January 23. To learn more about the bill, click here.