[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 17, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5416]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ROADLESS AREA CONSERVATION ACT OF 2003

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, as I fly across America, which I do every 
Monday and Friday from Seattle to Dulles Airport, every time I fly I 
realize what a beautiful country we have, truly the most beautiful one 
both for our democracy and in our beautiful lands. And those lands now 
are still at risk because the current administration, as the gentleman 
from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) so well laid out, threatens to violate the 
roadless area rule and violate the very clear desires of Americans to 
protect the last remaining pristine areas in our national forests.
  Now, we have an opportunity to stop this administration from gutting 
the roadless area rule. And I hope that my colleagues will join the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert) and myself in co-sponsoring the 
Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2003.
  This bill will simply incorporate the existing rule that protects the 
last remaining one-third of our national forests that truly are the 
crown jewels of our national forest system. And it will protect by 
preventing future road building, road building that has already covered 
360,000 miles of roads in our national forests already, most of which 
are built for timber harvest, much of which is no longer usable. At 
least 60,000 of those miles of road are no longer usable by anyone, 
even though they were used and built with taxpayer money. That is 
enough road to go around the world 16 times already in our national 
forests.
  Now, in response to that, Americans came out in droves over the last 
3 years at over 600 public meetings held by the Federal Government to 
ask Americans what they wanted to do with their national forests. At 
those over-600 meetings of 2 million Americans, both in person and by 
e-mail letter, responded with the very clear and dramatic message, 
preserve these last remaining virgin pristine areas. Over 96 percent of 
Americans who addressed this issue had a single message for the 
President of the United States: keep the clear-cutting and the 
bulldozers out of these remaining forests. And we got some good news 
rhetorically from the administration because rhetorically the 
administration said that they are going to keep the roadless area rule. 
But, it is one of those big ``buts'' that you hear so much of in life; 
they were going to slash and burn by exempting Alaska. And they were 
going to slash and burn by exempting other States, as long as in some 
process, it remains uncertain, the Governor of that State wanted to 
exempt that particular State.
  In fact, some of the biggest tracts, in fact, the biggest tracts, the 
most biologically intact tracts of land in the world for temperate 
forests are in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests which are right 
now protected by the roadless area rule, which if the President has his 
way will no longer be protected. These are the most biologically 
productive rain forests in the world that the administration wants to 
now open up to clear-cutting and road building, to strip away the 
protection that over 2 million Americans spoke so loudly to keep, and 
that is just wrong. It is wrong because Americans do not want it, and 
it is wrong because it violates the whole spirit of the roadless area 
rule.
  You cannot say you are going to uphold the roadless area rule and 
then strip out the largest forests in the United States from its 
protection. It is kind of like the President saying, We will have the 
No Child Left Behind Act, but we will exempt the children in Alaska 
because they are some kind of lesser Americans, and then we will also 
exempt the States where Governors say we do not want to have this 
protection of No Child Left Behind.
  We believe that all American forests, including Alaska, including all 
50 States, are entitled to the roadless area rule.
  Now, in my State of Washington, we are kind of proud of our forests 
too. We have three very beautiful roadless area rules that we want to 
see statutorily protected, protected by a law passed by Congress so 
that no President of either party in the future can cave in to special 
interests to allow clear-cutting in these forests. These are in the 
Colville National Forest, they are in the Dark Divide area in the 
Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and my personal favorite, the Olympic 
National Forest close to where I live in Kitsap County, Washington.
  In that forest there are two trees at the end of a trail in this 
roadless area, two beautiful Douglas firs. They are about maybe 8 feet 
in diameter. Incredible trees. We call them Theodore and Franklin after 
the Roosevelts who were so responsible for protecting these areas that 
are now subject to the roadless area rule.
  Our message from Washington State is, Theodore and Franklin deserve 
protection, and their cousins in Alaska deserve protection, and every 
tree in these protected roadless areas deserve protection. I hope my 
colleagues will join me in co-sponsoring this bill and send a message 
to the administration, we want the roadless area, not just pieces.

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