[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 94 (Monday, June 24, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  1997

                                 ______


                               speech of

                             HON. VIC FAZIO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 19, 1996

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3662) making 
     appropriations for the Department of the Interior and related 
     agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, and 
     for other purposes:

  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Chairman, I think it is important that 
we revisit the issue of the timber salvage rider that was part of the 
Rescissions bill last year. While I felt at the time that it was 
important to address the problem of dead and dying trees, and the issue 
of forest health in general, in hindsight it was clear we dealt with it 
in too much haste.
  I did not vote on the Yates amendment when it was considered on the 
floor last year because I was with my wife at the hospital while she 
had minor surgery. I did vote for the bill on final passage, however, 
both because it helped to provide disaster relief to California and 
because it had the administration's support. At the time I think few 
Members of Congress were aware that the salvage timber rider allowed 
section 318 timber sales to be reinstated as well. If they had been 
aware of the deficiency, I do not think this rider would have gotten 
through.
  The 1990 section 318 sales were intended to allow the development of 
a compromise in the Northwest but they did not succeed and were halted 
due to environmental concerns. These sales only affect old growth 
timber. The issue of salvage timber--or the attempt to glean the forest 
of dead or dying trees particularly after drought periods like the one 
recently in California--is a different concern altogether.
  To my knowledge, these two issues were never intended to be 
intermingled. Fortunately, the Appeals Court has stepped in to stop the 
expedited 318 sales of old growth trees so we will have a chance to 
deal with option 9 in a responsible manner.
  Given the vagueness of the definition of salvage timber, it was not 
unexpected that this provision could be ill used to harvest healthy 
trees. We should not have gone forward with the salvage timber rider 
without tightening up how the Forest Service implemented the program in 
the first place. In practice, the program allowed for more than dead 
and dying trees to be cut.
  For those of us in this Congress who see a real threat to forest 
health and who have a strong desire to find the appropriate solution, 
the salvage timber rider simply went too far. Instead of merely 
allowing the timber companies some flexibility in helping to prevent 
future wildfires, those pursuing a different agenda took advantage of 
the opportunity and sought to cut healthy trees and old growth timber 
as well.
  I would like to cite an example of how such sales can be extremely 
detrimental. Recently in my district the Forest Service sought to 
reinstate the Barkley timber sale in the Lassen National Forest. I 
personally appealed to the Department of Agriculture to stop the sale 
because it would have seriously unraveled the cooperative local efforts 
among landowners, conservationists, and government officials to produce 
a collaborative strategy for resource management.
  In particular, the Quincy Library Group is a broad-based organization 
which worked hard to come to an agreement on timber harvests in the 
Sierra Nevadas. The Barkley timber sale would have jeopardized that 
carefully balanced effort. In response to my concern, the sale was 
stopped.
  We must seek an appropriate balance in identifying solutions that 
will work over time. I support the amendment before us to restore 
environmental review to the timber salvage process. We need to provide 
a check to the extreme actions being undertaken under the guise of 
harvesting dead and dying trees.

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