[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 157 (Tuesday, November 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H11709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 QUINCY LIBRARY GROUP AND FOREST HEALTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, we have a forest health crisis in this 
country and the Clinton-Gore administration's current do-nothing 
policies are utterly failing to address it. A government report 
released in April states that approximately 39 million acres of our 
western national forests are at extremely high risk of catastrophic 
fire.
  Alarmingly, this same report indicates that the Forest Service has 
failed to advance a cohesive strategy to treat this 39 million acres at 
risk, despite the fact that the window of opportunity for taking 
effective management action is only about 10 to 25 years before 
catastrophic wild fires become widespread.
  Last year, Congress passed historic legislation that was intended to 
provide the Forest Service a tool with which to proactively address and 
combat this forest health crisis.
  The bipartisan Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery 
Act, which passed last Congress by an overwhelming margin of 429-to-1, 
mandated a project to manage our forests for health and safety, while 
providing for a responsible, ecologically sound level of harvesting to 
benefit local economies.
  The Forest Service was assigned the responsibility of carrying out 
this specific plan, but made several last minute additions to the 
environmental analysis that have drastically tilted the bipartisan 
balance that this Congress struck in the law and the Quincy Group 
struck in its plan.
  These changes, based on a combination of bad science and special 
interest politics, will prevent treatment on almost all of the 2\1/2\ 
million acres to be protected from catastrophic fire under the original 
plan. The decision was made behind closed doors, without public input.
  Mr. Speaker, the Forest Service has taken it upon itself to 
circumvent a law that this Congress passed almost unanimously. The 
Quincy plan presented us with an opportunity to proactively prevent the 
very type of catastrophic forest and wildland fires that have ripped 
through 5 counties in my district in Northern California in the past 8 
weeks, tragically taking two human lives.
  These fires have also burned more than 250,000 acres of public and 
private property, destroyed more than 100 homes, eliminated thousands 
of acres of wildlife habitat and various species of wildlife, and 
generated tons of smoke. In addition, the American taxpayers have paid 
close to $100 million to fight these fires.
  However, the Forest Service has rejected this plan and has scaled it 
back to the point that it is almost meaningless, perhaps hoping the 
fire risks will somehow go away, despite the fact that the risk of 
catastrophic fire across the West is increasing.
  The agency proposes to lock up our choked, fire-prone forests and 
allow prescribed fires to achieve its so-called forest management 
goals, even though this policy causes serious air pollution and poses a 
very real risk that a burn will get out of control, as it has on a 
number of occasions.
  To add to this outrage, Mr. Speaker, the administration recently 
proposed to lock up an additional 40 to 50 million more acres of 
national forests, preventing the very management strategies that our 
fire experts are telling us we absolutely must take.
  This attempt to shut down access to the public's forest lands is too 
much about what special interest groups demand and too little of what 
their own elected government and science recommends.
  This Clinton-Gore administration has needlessly put our lives and 
property at risk in a selfish attempt to create an environmental 
legacy. The reality of our forest health crisis is that more, not less, 
of our forests must be available for pursuing forest management 
strategies.
  We must begin to take proactive steps before catastrophic fires 
become more widespread. The forest service and this administration have 
refused to respond and have neglected congressional attempts to address 
the crisis. They appear ready to serve special interest environmental 
politics until well after the election.
  Regrettably, forest fires are not that patient.
  Mr. Speaker, our forests and our communities are at risk and we 
intend to do everything possible to hold this administration 
accountable for its negligence.

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