[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 91 (Tuesday, July 9, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H4398-H4399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DISASTER IN SOUTH DAKOTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak this 
afternoon to some issues that are important to my State.
  In the last week I have had the opportunity to travel the State of 
South Dakota and witness some enormous devastation that our State has 
experienced as a result of drought. It was announced yesterday that the 
month of June was the driest in the 114-year history of our State. In 
western South Dakota we have farmers and ranchers who are experiencing 
tremendous economic impacts, losing, having to sell and liquidate their 
herds. We need a solution.
  I will continue to prevail upon this body, upon my colleagues here, 
as I have already, to provide assistance to our farmers and ranchers 
who are so desperately in need of help this year.
  In my judgment, the drought we are experiencing in South Dakota is 
not unlike many of the other natural disasters that affect other parts 
of this country, and it demands that this Congress and the people of 
this country step up and support those in my State who are suffering so 
desperately this year.
  I also had the opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to witness firsthand some of 
the devastation that resulted as a result of the Grizzly Gulch fire, 
fire that ravaged about 11,000 acres of South Dakota this last week. 
Fortunately, it is under control; it is being contained. For that, we 
owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the extraordinary effort that 
was made by fire fighters all across South Dakota, volunteers who came 
and joined the Federal fire fighters who were doing such a great job of 
controlling, containing that blaze.
  It came very, very close, right down to the city's edge, the city of 
Deadwood and other communities that would be impacted. It burned a 
number of structures and homes, but it did not come into the community 
as a result of the extraordinary efforts; and for that, I give the fire 
fighters of my State, many of them volunteers from across our State, 
great credit for the tremendous work that they did in controlling that 
blaze.
  The people of my State have pulled together as they do in times of 
adversity to address this tragedy. We saved

[[Page H4399]]

the community of Deadwood. And in South Dakota, I will tell my 
colleagues, we are open and ready for business. Those who like to 
vacation, we invite them to South Dakota. We have a number of wonderful 
family vacation attractions. It is very family-friendly. It is 
affordable. We have lakes and hills and bike trails, Mount Rushmore, 
Crazy Horse, many of the other great attractions that are unique to 
South Dakota. We want people of this country to come to our State and 
experience the wonderful beauty of it and take in many of the 
attractions that are available to them.
  One thing that came out of this also, Mr. Speaker, and was 
reinforced, is that we need a change in forest policy in this country. 
Fires are a natural part of a forest system. We know that. But the 
intensity of those fires is not natural. We need to reduce the fuel 
loads that exist in places, in the Black Hills National Forest. We have 
seen fires in other parts of the country this year, but we have 
experienced firsthand fires in my State, and we have enormous loads of 
fuel on the ground in places that need to be reduced or we will be 
dealing with catastrophic fires throughout the course of the summer.
  The Forest Service needs the authority to clear the dead trees that 
are creating the fuel loads that are presenting the risk of 
catastrophic fire. I have been trying now for several months to get a 
legislative solution in place that would give the Forest Service the 
tools they need to prevent catastrophic fires. Those efforts have been 
resisted to this point in the other body. Last week's fire should be a 
reminder and force us all to take another look at the policies in this 
country.
  We have in this country, in my opinion, a big fire policy; as a 
result, we have big fires. We are seeing them burn in Arizona and 
Colorado and now South Dakota. We need reforms, Mr. Speaker, that will 
enable the Forest Service to address these incredible risks that exist 
in our forests today.
  The Forest Service, 40 percent litigation and appeals; 40 percent of 
the dollars that we appropriate for the Forest Service are spent 
fighting lawsuits and appeals that are brought on by groups who are 
trying to prevent the Forest Service from doing what they know they 
need to do and what the public knows needs to be done to keep our 
forests healthy.
  I urge my colleagues to work with those of us that live in areas that 
are at risk of catastrophic fire to make change in our policies that 
will protect the lives and the property of people of my State and 
others like it.
  The Blacks Hills National Forest is South Dakota's treasure, but it 
is also America's treasure, and we need to treat it that way. Our State 
is experiencing historic droughts; that is a disaster. With that comes 
the risk of fire, fires that we know are going to be frequent in years 
like this. But the intensity of those fires, Mr. Speaker, is something 
we can address. We have within our control the ability and the power to 
give the Forest Service the tools that they need, the authority they 
need to go in there and manage and treat these forests, to clear those 
dead trees and that dead timber in a way that will prevent these forest 
fires from happening in the future.
  In one part of Beaver Park, which is in the Sturgis area of South 
Dakota, we have there 70 tons of fuel on the ground in an area where 
the average is 7 tons of fuel, primarily as a result of the pine beetle 
infestation which has been killing trees at a rampant pace. In the last 
couple of years, in 1999, there were 15,000 trees that were affected by 
the pine beetle. In 2001, that was 100,000 trees. Yet, because of 
lawsuits, because of litigation, because of appeals and dilatory 
tactics, the Forest Service is unable to go in and take the steps 
necessary to keep the lives and property of people safe and to make 
sure that our forests are healthy.
  Mr. Speaker, today I ask my colleagues in this body to work with me 
to make the necessary changes to give the Forest Service the tools they 
need and the authority they need to do the job of keeping our forests 
safe, protecting our lives and property, and our forests healthy.

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