[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 26 (Thursday, February 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S2357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              FOREST HEALTH PROTECTION AND RESTORATION ACT

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Forest 
Health Protection and Restoration Act, to be introduced by Senator 
Craig, myself, and others. This is a bill that is very important to my 
State of Montana and whose time has come. Forest health and management 
is paramount to the economic stability and future of Montana and, of 
course, our neighbors who depend on these renewable resources which 
support our smaller communities in Idaho and Montana.
  For too long, the various land managing agencies in the Federal 
Government have been telling us that there is not a problem with the 
health and vitality of our national forests and Federal lands. On 
January 20, I had a report placed in the Congressional Record regarding 
this very topic. It appears that the Forest Service had requested a 
report on the state of the health of western forests, and after review 
decided that the report did not meet the standards that they had 
desired, changing the report before its publication could reach 
Congress and the public. It is the intent of this legislation to make 
the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and all 
organizations more responsive to the oversight of Congress. I do not 
think that was the intent of the legislation. I am sure it was not.
  This act, the Forest Health Protection and Restoration Act, 
recognizes the removal of the problems that crept into our forests as 
essential to the future of our Federal lands. This act acknowledges the 
plain and simple truth that overgrowth in our forests is a problem that 
must be faced in our lifetime. The removal of old and heavy undergrowth 
is essential to sustaining and developing a healthy forest for the 
future. The purpose of this legislation is to provide for the future 
through proper management and the authority to adapt a flexible 
decisionmaking process to our Federal lands for forest health.
  We looked at our forests in the northern part of Idaho and the 
northwestern corner of Montana and advised the Forest Service and land 
managers years ago that if we did not do something with the biomass 
that was created by some dead and dying trees--we had a moth up there 
that killed a lot of trees--if those diseased trees could not be 
removed from our Federal lands, all we need is a dry year and a high 
lighting year, and we are going to experience the biggest fire season 
that we have ever had.
  I am here to tell the American people, last summer we had that fire 
season. There were millions and millions of dollars in fire suppression 
spent, lives were lost and there was an estimate that there was enough 
timber lost to build thousands and thousands of homes in this great 
country, of which we still have a housing shortage.
  I joined in sponsorship of this measure so that the citizens of 
Montana can have an opportunity to address their future. This bill when 
enacted will provide this chance. No longer will Montanans be at the 
mercy of the actions and whims of people many miles away, with no 
vested interest in the forests, lands that they tie up with numerous 
nuisance lawsuits. Under the powers granted within this measure, we 
will provide safety to those people under emergency designations that 
will allow forest management the ability to open, for health reasons,
 forests to treatments. This legislation will expedite the manner in 
which resource managers will be allowed to assist in therapy for the 
forests, which for years, have been left to their own devices, namely 
fire and disease, for treatment.

  Last summer I saw in Montana the results laying in waste and ash, of 
the disregard that many have for proper forest health. Earlier in the 
year, during an Appropriations Committee hearing, I warned the 
leadership of the National Forest Service of the pending disaster 
waiting to occur in the forests of northwestern Montana. A disaster, 
which highlighted the occurrences if proper forest health issues were 
not addressed immediately. During one of the most costly fire seasons 
in history millions of dollars of taxpayer money was expended, and 
millions of feet of timber, to were lost to the fires that ravaged our 
national forests last summer. Lives were lost, private property 
destroyed or damaged; all because we did not address the need to 
maintain the health of our national forests.
  We cannot return the forests to what they once were, hundreds of 
years ago before man set foot among the trees. The time has come when 
we can no longer allow fires to cure the needs of the forests of this 
country. There are many ills that can attack and destroy the trees and 
the beauty and health of our publicly owned lands. Nature can and will 
work to care and clean up the messes that we create, either through our 
own ignorance or neglect. The implementation of this legislation will 
provide us the working tools to begin to look after the future health 
and welfare of our public lands. The work we are seeking to develop 
here is not to promote the wholesale depletion of the land, but to 
allow the country to use and develop a healthy forest using the 
renewable resources that are at hand.
  This piece of legislation is very important to Montana, to the West 
and the Nation. For under this act we can, and will provide for the 
future of our national forests and Federal lands. By opening our eyes 
to the problems that lay among our forests we will see a cleaner, more 
vibrant and stable forest than we have for years. I ask my fellow 
Senators to act quickly on this measure and let us repair and 
rehabilitate the great forests of our country.
  I congratulate my friend from Idaho for his work in drafting this 
piece of legislation because the time has come when we have to look at 
the way Mother Nature takes care of our forest and the way the forest 
has to be managed so that those resources can be enjoyed by all of 
America. We cannot afford another 1988, nor can we afford another 1994 
when it comes to saving that great renewable resource that it takes to 
supply the vast majority of shelter in this country.
  So I congratulate my friend from Idaho who has introduced this 
legislation. I hope that it will be considered in the committee very 
quickly and brought to this floor and passed out of the Senate for 
House consideration.
  I would like to see this legislation become law this year because we 
still have diseased forests that are in danger to, yes, yet another 
year of drought and maybe disease that should be worked on right now. 
This is a renewable resource. It is a resource that is America's, and 
we cannot let it just to be wasted away.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  Mr. BURNS. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

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