Twenty-four Colorado conservation groups—including 350 Colorado, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, High Country Conservation Advocates, and WildEarth Guardians—signed a letter asking Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) to oppose the unscientific “Fix Our Forests” Act and instead support legislation that would actually protect communities from wildfire through home hardening and defensible space pruning less than 100 feet around homes.

The letter, drafted by Eco-Integrity Alliance, is in response to information that Sen. Hickenlooper intends to introduce a Senate companion bill to H.R. 471, which passed the House of Representatives in January. Such legislation would decimate bedrock environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, and arbitrarily expand the definition of “hazardous fuels management” to allow nearly all forms of forest clearing in the name of “wildfire,” including clearcutting and removal of mature and old-growth trees.

Studies (both independent, peer reviewed and from U.S. Forest Service) show that “thinning” heats up and dries out the forest microclimate, which can make fires start easier and burn more intensely—including igniting crown fires—while opening stands that let winds spread flames quicker to nearby communities, potentially overwhelming firefighters and evacuees.

Instead, the coalition of Colorado conservation groups ask Sen. Hickenlooper to draft a companion bill to Rep. Jared Huffman’s (D-CA) “Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act,” H.R. 582, which focuses on the only actions proven by the best available peer-reviewed science to save structures and lives, i.e., home hardening and defensible space pruning up to 100 feet around homes.