Nestled in Washington's Cascades Mountains, the community of Leavenworth has suffered through two fires in the past decade that devastated nearby forests and destroyed or threatened many homes. The most recent, the Icicle Creek fire in 2001, consumed 8,500 acres of forest.

These blazes highlight the persistent problem of catastrophic fires throughout the West. Last year, for example, was the worst fire season in a half century, as nearly 90,000 fires ravaged 7 million acres, an area larger than Maryland and Rhode Island combined. Fueled by overgrown forests, these fires flared into infernos that turned forests into moonscapes and clogged rivers and streams with mud and other sediment.

This crisis called for action at the national level. While the fires were still raging, President Bush announced his Healthy Forests Initiative to expedite the approval process for fuel reductions in support of the National Fire Plan and the historic 10-year strategy adopted by the federal government, states, local governments and tribes in May 2002.

Last week, the president signed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. The new law, passed with strong bipartisan majorities in Congress, greatly improves the management of millions of acres of our public forests and rangelands threatened by catastrophic wildfires.

However, the real test of our national forest health efforts will take place not in Congress but at the local level in communities across the West. If Leavenworth is any indication, we will pass this test with flying colors.

Shortly after the president announced his initiative, the staff of the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery used the improved procedures to conduct fuels reduction on 40 acres of overgrown forest on hatchery land.

At first, some local residents were skeptical of the project, concerned that the staff intended to clearcut the land. But when they found out the project involved thinning out the tangled thickets of trees and brush to create a more natural and healthier forest, they did more than simply support the project. Two local homeowners associations representing 300 families sought the Fish and Wildlife Service's help in thinning forests.

The service's biologists helped landowners apply for and receive grants under the National Fire Plan. The result was the treatment of more than 3,000 acres around Leavenworth. When a future fire starts, those acres will help protect the community from a potential inferno.

With 190 million acres at high risk of catastrophic fire across the country, this is the kind of partnership we need if we are going to conserve forests and rangelands and protect communities and families. Therefore, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act emphasizes public participation in selecting fuels treatment projects. Congress set aside at least 50 percent of the funds spent under the act for the treatment of areas immediately around communities.

At the same time, it is hard to overstate the importance of reducing bureaucratic snags. Delays in removing fuels can be a forest's death knell.

To help managers plan projects that protect communities such as Leavenworth, the new law reduces the number of alternatives they must analyze to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act.

This may not seem like a big difference, but it is. Under the expedited procedures called for under the initiative, service biologists prepared a 15-page environmental assessment at Leavenworth hatchery compared with the ponderous 60- to 70-page assessment previously required. The new law will allow similar paperwork reductions for environmental impact statements on federal lands across Washington and the West.

The act also spells out judicial reforms aimed at limiting delays caused by frivolous challenges to thinning projects. It ends the practice of court shopping, requiring appeals to be filed in the same district where the project is located. It encourages courts to expedite their review of appeals and limits court-ordered temporary halts to 60 days.

It's important to note that the act requires the courts to balance the long-term benefits of fuels reduction projects against their short-term impacts when considering requests to stop or delay the work. Before a court can halt a project based on its immediate environmental impacts, it must look ahead and consider the benefits hazardous fuels removal may have for biodiversity, wildlife and its habitat and water quality.

Because of the vast scope of the problem, reducing fuel loads and unnatural conditions throughout our forests and rangelands may take years to achieve. However, for the people of Leavenworth and communities across the West, the act provides hope that someday they will no longer face the threat of another devastating fire season like 2002.

Working together acre by acre, we can and will restore our lands to health while protecting families and communities.

Gale Norton has headed the 154-year-old U.S. Department of the Interior since January 2001.