A bipartisan group of senators is planning to introduce legislation designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires like those that have raged this month out West. Five Western senators …are expected to propose a measure designed as a compromise between Republicans eager to snip red tape preventing forest managers from thinning overgrown woods and Democrats leery of giving the greenlight to timber companies looking to harvest federally owned forests. At the heart of the compromise is a pilot program to stop wildfires in the ponderosa pines. …Some timber industry, firefighting and conservation groups — including the American Forest Resource Council, the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Wildlife Federation — offered early endorsements of the legislation.