[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 46 (Tuesday, April 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3157-S3158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                           OUR WESTERN AGENDA

 Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, as I sit here and look around at my 
surroundings, there is a dominant feature, our Nation's Capitol. The 
Rotunda is a landmark that is recognized throughout our country.
  What is noticeably missing from this landscape is Idaho!
  Our Nation's Capitol is vastly different from Idaho. Each day, 
Congressmen come to work and see the historical landmarks of the 
Capitol. They do not see Idaho's vast mountains, rural countrysides, 
expansive farmland, or raging rivers, the landmarks we all feel in part 
define Idaho.
  Every day, I work to promote and advocate for our Western principles 
and our Western lifestyle. These Western principles are the touchstone 
for my service in Congress.
  And every day, my goal is to work to establish Federal policies that 
are responsive to the needs and interests of Idaho and the West, as 
well as to lead in developing natural resource and energy policies that 
protect Western water and ensure a clean, safe environment, consistent 
with sound science, community stability, economic growth and the 
principle of multiple use.
  I am a fiscal conservative who believes in the principles of multiple 
use, conservation, and management at the local level. I believe these 
fundamental ideas should guide all natural resource decisions. Natural 
resource management is about balancing the needs of the people with the 
needs of the land. I have never met someone who wants dirty air, 
undrinkable water, or devastated forests. We all want a livable 
environment. Where people differ is over how these goals will be 
accomplished.
  That being said, I have compiled all of my thoughts and feelings on 
Western issues to create what I call ``Our Western Agenda.''

[[Page S3158]]

  ``Our Western Agenda'' is designed to provide suggestions on specific 
Idaho and Western issues. It proposes a compass for how our natural 
resource policy should address these issues.
  While the list of issues that touch the West is much longer than 
this, I believe the following ideas comprise the core. First, I believe 
access must be guaranteed to our public lands for multiple uses, 
including ranching, mining, and recreation.
  In order to maintain the values of public lands, I believe the most 
critical characteristic that needs to be preserved is access. 
Conservation and multiple use, for a century now the dominant policy of 
our public lands, require access. Only by accessing these areas can 
active management take place, providing protection for our public lands 
against disease, wildfire, and insect epidemics.
  Next, the long struggle over public access to our lands has left many 
with battle fatigue and I believe through collaborative conservation, 
mutual goals of various user groups can be accomplished. Clearly, we 
need a new approach to solving natural resource conflicts, user 
conflicts, and management conflicts.
  In order to resolve conflict, all the players need to come ``to the 
table'' to explore our shared ideals instead of reinforcing our 
disagreements.
  I think we should adopt the strategies of some local activists who 
have turned away from the existing national standoff. Instead, they are 
working to bridge differences, to find a common solution that reflects 
the national environmental ethic. In a phrase: collaborative 
conservation.
  I believe collaborative conservation should include the following. We 
must discard the doctrine of national communities of interest, where 
decision makers are selected from national organizations, and return to 
a doctrine of local community interest. We should not allow Federal 
bureaucracies and national organizations to upset the fragile process 
of local consensus making.
  We need a process of continuous improvement in reducing our impacts 
on the land. We must stipulate that for all the progress made by 
commodity-producing industries, loggers and ranchers, and 
recreationists, we can always do better.
  Federal Government policies desperately need modernization. The 
Government needs to manage better. It must not allow restrictive 
approaches based upon inflexible national mandates to trump what would 
otherwise be environmentally sound activities and shut out local people 
who have to live with the consequences of Federal decisions.
  As a community, we need to come together to solve the challenges of 
multiple-use in order to achieve conservation and balance on our public 
lands. I also believe as our Nation's energy policy continues to 
develop, we will continue to look to have access to our public lands to 
provide resources.
  During the past decade, we have heard a chorus of energy marketers 
and environmentalists sing the praises of natural gas as a cost-
effective and environmentally sensitive energy source. The past 
administration hailed natural gas as the cleanest fuel for home heating 
and aggressively pushed utility companies to convert oil and coal-fired 
electric plants to gas.
  The irony is that all this aggressive promotion has not been backed 
by commensurate efforts to ensure supply. Indeed, the Clinton 
administration complicated our ability to retrieve adequate supplies of 
gas by locking up Federal land deposits of this valuable energy source, 
with an estimated 40 percent of potential gas resources in the United 
States on Federal lands that are either closed to exploration or 
covered by severe restrictions.
  Increases in Federal red tape and bureaucratic inefficiency raised 
consumer costs while denying consumers the choices they were promised. 
The fact of the matter is as the United States enters the 21st century, 
our Nation lacks a readily available and sufficient supply of natural 
gas to satisfy current demand, let alone the increasing demand that we 
expect in the immediate future. Consequently, natural gas prices are 
high and will likely rise in the future.
  This will not change until we reverse government policies that have 
foreclosed opportunities for choice of fuels.
  Furthermore, failure to encourage investment in the transmission of 
electricity has threatened the reliability of service throughout the 
country.
  The Department of Energy has estimated that we will need to construct 
over the next several years an additional 255,000 miles of distribution 
lines, at an estimated cost of $120 to $150 billion, to ensure that our 
electric system remains the most reliable in the world.
  The notion that our Nation can rely so heavily on natural gas, 
maintain severe restrictions on exploration and production, and still 
enjoy low prices is, as Secretary Abraham has stated, ``a dangerous 
assumption.''
  Last, I believe a common sense approach will protect our public lands 
against catastrophic fires, weeds, and exclusive policies. Fire is a 
natural component of any ecosystem. It stimulates plant growth, 
maintains a plant understory, and creates diversity. All of these 
aspects are healthy characteristics of a thriving forest.
  However, when fire is suppressed and active forest management 
activities--thinning, prescribed burns, etc.--that mimic fire behavior 
are ignored, this is a prescription for disaster.
  The neglectful management practices of the past will continue to 
plague our public lands unless we pursue active management practices 
that result in a balanced ecosystem. In order to prevent devastating 
fires, the agencies need the resources and flexibility to make 
management decisions that maintain our public lands.
  Increased fuel loads create catastrophic fires, contribute to 
declining watersheds, increase sedimentation and decrease water 
quality, and lead to the demise of fisheries.
  This disastrous spiral must be stopped. Non-native weeds are a 
serious problem on both public and private lands across the Nation. 
They are particularly troublesome in the West, where much of our land 
is entrusted to the management of the Federal Government.
  Like a ``slow burning wildfire,'' noxious weeds take land out of 
production, force native species off the land, and interrupt the 
commerce and activities of all those who rely on the land for their 
livelihoods, including farmers, ranchers, recreationists, and others.
  Forests and rangelands are dynamic systems that constantly change in 
response to both natural and man-made events. They are never static. 
Any scientist will tell you that a healthy forest or rangeland requires 
active management. Like your backyard garden, you can't just let it go 
and expect it to be productive and healthy. You have to actively manage 
the resource by doing everything from thinning trees, to spraying for 
weeds, to maintaining roads.
  Without access to our lands, it is impossible to manage our public 
lands properly. Without access, we will end up with unhealthy lands 
that are prime candidates for catastrophic wildfires and insect 
infestations of epic proportions.
  It is time to move our public lands management agencies away from a 
``one-size-fits all'' management policy and back toward their original 
missions.
  As set forth in law, the missions are to achieve high-quality land 
management under the sustainable multiple-use management concept to 
meet the diverse needs of all users.
  In all of this, I believe we still have an Old West, a rural society 
centered on the original commodity-producing industries and 
agriculture, and then there is a New West, centered on the vigorous 
quest for a quality of life that includes the enjoyment of the 
outdoors.
  What ties ``the old'' and ``the new'' together is an appreciation for 
the resources and the value that multiple uses contribute to our 
livelihoods and communities.
  Natural resource management is about bringing the Old West and the 
New West together to balance the needs of all the people with the needs 
of the land.

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