[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 30 (Thursday, March 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S1614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  A BALANCE IN SALVAGE SALES IN TIMBER

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I first want to make a general observation 
with respect to the previous Senator's statement on the salvage sales. 
I think we all agree that we are striving for balance here; namely, we 
want to assure that dead, diseased, dying timber, that is, salvaged 
timber, is harvested appropriately. That means there is a role to speed 
up salvage sales, but we also want to make sure we do not abuse our 
environmental statutes, abuse environmental protections.
  I know the Senator, as all Senators are, is hoping to try to find the 
correct balance between those two extremes. One extreme is to go in and 
cut timber, dead, diseased, dying timber, and also green timber, as we 
do not want to abuse the salvage sale provision, but at the same time 
we want to make sure that our environmental statutes are adequately 
protected, because all Americans want balance and they want to make 
sure our forests are protected and want to make sure that they are also 
properly managed.

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