[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 18, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H2711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                 THE IMPORTANCE OF SALVAGE TO FORESTRY

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, the Ninth Circuit Court is on a roll this 
week. First, they upheld gun rights in northern California. Now they 
have tossed out yet another frivolous lawsuit on salvage operations for 
forestry after a fire.
  Operations in western Siskiyou County on what is known as the west 
side fire--a fire that occurred in the summer and fall of 2014--are now 
finally proceeding where the value of that wood can be still, perhaps, 
hopefully, salvaged almost a year and a half later. Though it is only a 
scant 4 percent that they are going after in this harvest project here, 
you would think with the number of frivolous lawsuits and wailing over 
the project that we were causing an environmental disaster; yet the 
disaster has already occurred with the devastating fire.
  I am glad to see that the court ruled that some of the salvage 
operation can occur, because now the forest can actually recover. It 
can have an economic base to do so instead of merely coming out of the 
U.S. Treasury, and the people in the area can be employed in doing it 
in this forest fire recovery.
  It will be a positive for the habitat, a positive for the spotted 
owl. This is what we need to do in the long term. Salvage is an 
important part of forestry after a fire and not reinventing the wheel 
every single time we need to do the salvage and have lawsuits over it.

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