[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 83 (Thursday, June 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S5853]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GRAHAM:
  S. 2652. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to sell or 
exchange certain land in the State of Florida, and for other purposes; 
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, when the Spanish explorers surveyed 
Florida in the early 16th century, this is what they saw: Massive 
pines, measuring two to three feet in diameter that climbed into the 
skies over 100 feet.
  This was the landscape of the Apalachicola National Forest.
  You could walk through the forest, especially early in the day as the 
morning fog was rising, look up and see these silent giants create a 
dense canopy overhead.
  Some likened the forest's natural beauty to a cathedral of trees.
  The sheer enormity of these tall stately trees was magnified by the 
close cut landscape of wiregrass on the forest floor.
  This pattern of tall stately trees and lawn like underbrush, as the 
first Spanish explorers described this impressive habitat, was common 
throughout the southeast of North America--over 90 million acres of 
pines and wiregrass.
  Today, all but a fraction of these acres of the longleaf pine 
ecosystem have been destroyed or altered.
  The forest character has been transformed by thick palmetto and other 
growth from that which was encountered by Florida's earliest settlers.
  Why? Because of fires, or more precisely--the absence or containment 
of fires to protect businesses and their property.
  Natural fires created by thunderstorms are part of nature's cycle. 
The longleaf pines and wiregrass have natural qualities which allowed 
them to survive the fires while other plant life perished.
  The result is dramatically depicted in this painting by Jacksonville, 
FL artist Jim Draper who captures the landscape as it once looked and 
how it looks in limited areas today.
  I bring to the intention of my colleagues the landscape painting by 
Mr. Draper of the area to be affected by the adoption of the 
legislation by allowing us to bring into public ownership outholdings 
which represent a potential threat through the possibility that they 
might cause resistance to the necessary controlled fires which are 
necessary in order to maintain this small piece of what had been 90 
million acres of the southeastern United States.
  It is an important part of our Nation's natural history, which we 
have the opportunity to take a step to protect for future generations 
during this session of Congress.
  The painting is of one of those areas in the Apalachicola National 
Forest in the eastern section of the Florida Panhandle. It is known as 
Post Office Bay and retains the heritage of the American southeast of 
the pre-Columbian era.
  Like its predecessors, this special part of the Apalachicola is 
preserved due to fires, now both natural and prescribed.
  But those fires are now threatened by man. Private inholdings 
adjacent to Post Office Bay are being considered for sale as small 
acreage second homes and vacation sites. Should this occur, managed 
fires would likely encounter serious resistance from the new owners and 
the fires required to sustain this vestige of America's natural history 
would be ended.
  The 564,000 acre Apalachicola National Forest has a unique 
opportunity to acquire the remainder of a 2,560 acre inholding within 
the forest.
  As of last month, 1,180 acres of this property has been acquired 
through a land swap.
  Now we need to finish the job, to permanently protect Post Office 
Bay.
  The Florida National Forest Lands Management Act of 2002 will do just 
that.
  The United States Forest Service has been left with several 
noncontiguous parcels of land in Okaloosa County, further west in 
Florida's Panhandle--that it must manage because former portions of the 
Choctowahatchee National Forest were returned to the Forest Service by 
the Department of Defense.
  These parcels are high in value, some have potential buyers, and 
several are encumbered with urban structures, such baseball fields and 
the county fairgrounds.
  Our legislation will allow the Forest Service to sell these parcels 
and purchase the remainder of the Apalachicola inholdings and other 
sensitive lands with the proceeds.
  The land sale would have several benefits.
  This legislation will make it easier for nature and man to continue 
its cleansing process by fire without endangering private land or its 
occupants.
  By connecting the lands of the longleaf pine ecosystem, the regular 
course of natural fires can resume safely, optimizing Mother Nature's 
method of keeping this area beautiful.
  Also, by allowing the regular cycle of fire to resume freely, the 
regeneration process will continue.
  Ultimately, the forest would be more easily and effectively managed.
  The Florida National Forest Lands Management Act of 2002 is a 
sensible way for the Apalachicola National Forest to acquire these vast 
and important inholdings and preserve a natural treasure.
  It will aid in expanding the 3 million acres of longleaf pine that 
now cover the Southeastern United States.
  This measure has the support of the Forest Service, and I urge my 
colleagues to support it was well.
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