[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 106 (Thursday, August 4, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 THE STATUS OF AMERICA'S FORESTS TODAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Torres). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Doolittle] is recognized for 30 minutes.
  Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of groups who have been 
spreading fear among the public that we've been virtually mowing down 
our national forests and are on the brink of cutting down our last 
tree.
  The fact is, however, our forests are in better shape today than they 
were a 100 years ago.
  Dr. Jack Ward Thomas, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, recently 
noted that ``* * * the condition of America's forests is much improved 
over that at the turn of the century.''
  In the western United States, more acres are covered today than in 
the mid-1800's.
  Furthermore, the Forest Service recently debunked another myth about 
our forests when they reported that ``Many of the wildlife species 
threatened with extinction have returned in abundance.''
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that it is not only important that the 
American people hear the truth about the condition of our forests, but 
that they see it, as well.
  The California Forestry Association in cooperation with the 
California Forest Products Commission is currently in the process of 
conducting a photo-history study of the entire Sierra Nevada in order 
to document, in black and white, what the public is not being told 
about our forest lands in California.
  Thanks to United Forest Families, a group created to guard the 
interests of families and communities who depend on the timber 
industry, I have several photos which compare the state of today's 
forests with those at the turn of the century.
  These photos are a part of a study being compiled and published by 
Mr. George Gruell.
  Mr. Gruell is a retired U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist who, 
during his career, published extensively upon the subject of 
documenting long-term vegetative changes over time.
  All of the photos that I will display, save one, are taken in my 
district in California.
  Mr. Speaker, I would just like to point out that each one of these 
photos was taken from the same vantage point, although many years 
apart, in each case.
  Let us begin, Mr. Speaker, with this photo here, which shows Spooner 
Summit, which is in Toiyabe National Forest. This photo is facing north 
on Spooner Summit at the location of the current Highway 50. The 
current 50 would have run down in the forefront of the picture, about 
where you see that log flume down here in this picture taken in 1876, 
and you can see the flume, and you can see that the whole hillside has 
been basically removed of trees, clear-cut. There are a few young 
conifers that are invading here in this picture.
  Then, Mr. Speaker, in 1992, which would be some 116 years later, I 
guess, you can see from the same vantage point, here is modern Highway 
50. Here you see the area has been totally reinvaded by Jeffrey pine. 
The stand is denser than the original stand cut in the 1870's, and the 
patches of brush are denser and more wildlife-prone than in the 
original photo, but you can see a dramatic difference in 114 years in 
this picture with the clear-cut, with the flume, here we go to Highway 
50, and the very dense forest that has grown up.
  Mr. Speaker, in the next photo, this next one is in Tuolumne County. 
It displays the photo of Switchback. In the picture down here in 1904, 
this shows a railroad logging operation. On the west side are timber 
company lands, east of the town of Tuolumne. The area has been 
harvested heavily. Note the scattered open nature of the original 
stand, and the logging operation's retention of seed trees for 
reforestation purposes, so even back then they were thinking in terms 
of providing for the future sustainable yield, et cetera, so they have 
left a few seed trees.
  Mr. Speaker, we look at the same photographs taken in 1992, some 88 
years later, the area has been totally reforested with an excellent 
stand of ponderosa pine, white fir, and incense cedar. The dense stands 
that have grown up in the area, by the way, have created excellent 
spotted owl habitat.
  Mr. Speaker, we will go to the next picture here, which is Cold 
Springs Mill, also in Tuolumne County, CA. The original picture, taken 
in 1910, shows this millsite and operation at the time. You can see the 
area has been heavily harvested. The scattered stand in the background 
shows the widely spaced nature of the original, uncut stand, which 
would have been viewed as marginal spotted owl habitat.
  In 1991, some 81 years later, you can see the dense stand of 
ponderosa pine in here. It has totally reforested the site. Back in 
here, right here, is the outline of the foundation of this mill 81 
years older. The entire basin here is now considered excellent spotted 
owl habitat.
  Mr. Speaker, the last photograph which I would like to talk about is 
not of my district, nor, indeed, is it of California. I show it only to 
illustrate what happens with fires. This is in Wyoming, in the Bridger-
Teton National Forest.
  This photo at the bottom was taken in 1910, facing southeast across 
Hoback River. The slopes here show signs of the wildfire, right in 
here, which burned through this area in 1879. The area has not been 
logged, but the fire, obviously, had an impact for a significant period 
of time. In 1960, some 59 years later, you can see the heavily forested 
slopes. Douglas fir has totally reinvaded the area and covered the 
majority of the near slope and the forested area has greatly expanded.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to show those because a picture is worth a 
thousand words, and one really does get the impression from listening 
to some of the inflammatory rhetoric that people believe we have just 
about cut our last tree. I think it is important for people to realize 
that there is more timber today than there was standing in the mid-
1870's, and you can see how the effects are manifest through the 
reforestation. It is interesting just to see the big trees that were 
standing where, indeed, 80 years ago there were no trees, virtually.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not mean to imply that our forests are in perfect 
condition, for indeed, they are not, but I think it is important that 
we address the real cause of the decline in forest health.

                              {time}  1920

  The real problem threatening our forests today is not the lack of the 
trees but it is the condition of the trees.
  Rather than being slowly decimated by the faller's ax, our forests 
are on the verge of literally growing themselves to death.
  Due to the total elimination of Indian-initiated fires and the 
suppression of lightning-generated fires, our forests have over the 
last 150 years been converted from the open and park-like conditions 
that John Muir described to dense, thicket-like states that are highly 
susceptible to uncontrollable wildfire. Indeed already this year over 2 
million acres have burned in wildfires. Currently 19 major fires in 6 
Western States continue to burn. Thus far these fires have consumed 
over 192,000 acres alone.
  Another problem is that the rate of incidence of diseased trees is 
higher where trees grow close together and compete for a limited water 
supply. I might add that in many parts of my district when we fly over 
it, we are looking at areas where as much as one-third of the trees are 
diseased and dying. It is really a tragedy and it is due to a 
combination of a drought which weakens the trees, and after the 
drought, the insects invade and, of course, they take, then, a very, 
very heavy toll.
  If nothing is done to address the problem, that is when we get these 
enormous raging wildfires. The Indians deliberately set fires in order 
to clear out the underbrush, in order to provide light. Anyone who is a 
gardener, which I think is the most popular hobby in the country, knows 
that plants have to have light and trees are plants obviously, they 
start out very small. So what you need to do is create some space so 
that the trees are able to grow and get strong. It is just a principle 
that we are all familiar with as backyard gardeners, only it is applied 
on a larger scale.
  As evidenced by the drought, particularly in the Tahoe basin, much of 
which I represent, we must move to a timber policy which is 
scientifically based, not one which merely attempts to preserve our 
forests.
  Careful management would allow clearing for some trees in order to 
improve the overall health of the forest. Technology has improved the 
methods by which we can harvest and maintain timber stands.
  In an effort to increase the removal of undergrowth, which is a major 
fuel in wildfires, I have cosponsored legislation introduced by 
Representative Wally Herger, also from California, which would allow 
more fuels treatment.

  Mr. Speaker, let me reiterate the importance of the timber industry 
both environmentally and economically. It is time we adopt common sense 
policies to deal with our public forests.
  Mr. POMBO. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DOOLITTLE. I would be pleased to yield to my colleague, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Pombo], representing the great counties 
of San Joaquin and Sacramento.
  Mr. POMBO. I thank the gentleman.
  As both you and I serve on the Committee on Agriculture and the 
Committee on Natural Resources, we have had many opportunities to 
debate and listen to testimony in public hearings in our committees 
over this very issue of forest health and the issues which affect our 
national forests as well as the private property that is currently in 
forest lands.
  I recently had the opportunity to spend some time in northern 
California in Wally Herger's district and spent a great deal of time 
going throughout the forest and having the professional foresters take 
us through and explain to us the different methods in which they were 
currently harvesting trees versus what they did in the past and how 
they were trying to change their methods so that they would have the 
least impact on the natural forest and still be able to maintain those 
forests.
  One of the most upsetting things I think I saw in that whole trip was 
one national forest, and it was public property, and it had not been 
cared for at all and it had deteriorated to the point that the entire 
undergrowth was old trees that had fallen down and were rotting and 
decaying and brush that had overtaken the underground. One of the 
foresters explained to us that what would happen is a small fire would 
start in that undergrowth and instead of quickly going through and 
leaving the healthy trees behind, would catch the trees themselves on 
fire and get up into the crown of the tree and literally destroy an 
entire forest.
  I know in your area we are facing some of the same problems, and what 
this bill that the gentleman from California [Mr. Herger] has 
introduced is trying to do is allow people to go in and clean that out 
so that we can maintain a more healthier forest.

  Are we not in some of the same situations in your district now?
  Mr. DOOLITTLE. We most definitely are. In fact, I am very, very 
concerned about this fall approaching. We have had an extremely dry 
year in California, as in some of the other Western States. I remember 
about 3 years ago when we had devastating forest fires then, which was 
in the middle of the drought that we had before this heavy snowfall we 
had the year before last, and there were as I recall in a 24-hour 
period some 11,000 lightning strikes and we had fires all over the 
place. It is not unreasonable to project that we will have similar 
situations cropping up, only we are drier now than we were then. It is 
going to be devastating.
  The thing is, we have all heard it said that if one does not exercise 
the discipline from within, it will be exercised from without, namely, 
policemen, prisons, et cetera. That is a whole separate topic for a 
different special order. But in like fashion I would say if the forests 
are not managed by mankind as we know to do, if we simply leave them to 
literally their natural state, then the discipline will be imposed from 
without, but it is a harsh discipline. It is a discipline as we saw in 
that photo in one of the areas that when a forest fire burns through as 
you described, it climbs up the fuel ladder going from the underbrush, 
up into the tree and burns right on up to the top of the tree and burns 
the whole tree and burns the thousands of trees on either side of it. 
We are talking decades before that damage is repaired. Prudent 
management of the forest like we know to do but we have been prevented 
frankly by some of these fearmongering groups from doing is what is 
called for. Otherwise, we will truly hurt the environment and there 
will be nothing we can do to stop it.
  Once we get one of these wildfires raging of this magnitude, we have 
got probably more built-up fuel now than we have had in well over 100 
years, there will just be no stopping it. We saw what happened in 
Yellowstone. Just stand aside and let it burn, but it will leave deep, 
deep scars that will not be healed for many, many years.
  Mr. POMBO. I know that in recent testimony that we heard in the 
Committee on Agriculture that it was very interesting, it was almost 
unanimous among the professional foresters, people from the 
Forest Service, people from the logging industry, the timber industry 
as well as responsible environmentalists that we do need to manage our 
forests and that we cannot close our eyes and be total 
preservationists. That because man is part of the environment and has 
changed our environment by stopping fires, by fire suppression, that it 
is responsible to manage the forests and to go in and clean out the 
dead wood, to go in and thin the forests and replant and to continually 
manage the forests. It was very interesting that it was almost 
unanimous among those who were there that that is something we have to 
do.

  I think if we look into the new age of forest management and what we 
are going to do in the future to preserve our natural resources, to 
preserve our national forests and at the same time to provide lumber 
for our housing needs and for our paper needs, that we need to 
responsibly manage those resources. Part of that is to go in and take 
care of those forests the way that we know based on modern science and 
modern technology that we have to take care of those forests.
  I would like to thank the gentleman for taking the special order out 
tonight because I do feel it is important that our colleagues hear the 
kind of things we have heard in committee and the kind of testimony, 
because unfortunately not everyone has access and has an easy 
opportunity to sit through those hearings and to hear the people, the 
real people who are out there managing our forests and the real people 
out there who are in charge of taking care of these natural resources, 
to hear their testimony. Many times all we are exposed to here is the 
special interest groups inside the beltway. It is important that our 
colleagues have that information.
  Mr. DOOLITTLE. I thank the gentleman for joining me in this special 
order just to bring out a few of the facts. There is so much hysteria 
about this. I wish these pictures could be printed in the Congressional 
Record because all the people will see there are the words, so it is a 
little hard to visualize. Nevertheless, I hope the discussion this 
evening has been useful.

                              {time}  1930

  We have tremendous resources. It truly is a national treasure, but it 
needs to be properly managed. Failing to properly manage it ourselves 
leaves us really at the mercy of nature, of wildfires striking whenever 
they may, and that can devastate a community, and instead of having 
jobs that are provided for people to work in the forests, when that 
forest completely burns up there will be nothing there. People will 
have to fold up the tent and leave and go someplace else.
  It is for that purpose that I wanted to come tonight and explain this 
point of view. I appreciate the gentleman from California joining me.

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