[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 184 (Sunday, October 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6458-S6459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Colorado Wildfires

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I look forward to coming to the floor and 
speaking about the nomination that is currently before the U.S. Senate, 
the nomination of Judge Barrett to be placed on the U.S. Supreme Court, 
but at this point, I think it is important that we talk about what is 
happening in Colorado as we speak because of the heroic men and women 
who continue to fight our Nation's fires and certainly the devastating 
and catastrophic fires that we are seeing right now in Colorado.
  This year we have already seen two of the largest fires in Colorado 
history burning over 200,000 acres--wildfires that started out at 
20,000 acres, 25,000 acres, and then within hours grew 80-, 90-, 
100,000 acres in a day. It is unheard of growth for wildfires.
  The picture that I am showing you here is Estes Park, CO. Most people 
may be familiar with Estes Park. It is the gateway to Rocky Mountain 
National Park. You can see Lake Estes here and the town here. The town 
has been evacuated. A town of thousands of people has been evacuated 
because of two fires that are now threatening the area.
  One fire is the Cameron Peak Fire, which became the largest fire in 
the State's history, only to be challenged by another fire coming 
through Rocky Mountain National Park called the East Troublesome Fire. 
Both are impacting Rocky Mountain National Park. The city of Estes 
Park, the city of Grand Lake, and the city of Granby, overnight, they 
did receive a winter storm. It is snowing now, and it is reducing the 
fire activity. It will not put the fire out. But my prayers and 
thoughts continue with the men and women who are fighting this fire so 
valiantly and the people in these communities who are in harm's way.
  We know that homes have been lost. We don't know how many, but we 
know that homes have been lost, and we certainly acknowledge the loss 
of life that has already occurred. A couple in Grand Lake, who stayed 
in their home when the fire came through--they were together, but we 
pray for them and their families, and we mourn their loss.
  The East Troublesome Fire, which is the Medicine Bow-Routt National 
Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland, has a Type 1 management 
team already assigned. It is the No. 1 priority of the U.S. Forest 
Service in the country right now because of the aggressive fire 
behavior, with spotting that has threatened places like Estes Park. 
There are evacuations, road closures, trail closures, and has over 500 
people, right now, assigned to this fire.
  The Cameron Peak Fire has about 1,100 personnel working on the fire 
right now. We know about 470 structures have been lost. It is over 
208,000 acres.
  The Calwood Fire in Boulder County has a Type 2 management team 
fighting the fire right now. Their evacuation is in effect. There are 
nearly 400 people fighting this fire. There were 28 structures lost.
  The Ice Fire--an ironic name--in the San Juan National Forest, near 
Silverton, CO, we know that it is about 600 acres right now.
  There is the Williams Fork Fire, which has been burning for months in 
Colorado and Grand County. In Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests, 
we know that there have been several communities and energy 
infrastructure threatened by all these fires.
  If you think about this entire town being evacuated, in the Colorado-
Big Thompson Project, which provides a great deal of water to the Front 
Range of Colorado and through the South Platte River Valley, diversions 
were stopped, energy production impacted, and major utility 
transmission lines have been lost.
  And, of course, there is the loss to some of the most magnificent 
areas of Rocky Mountain National Park, perhaps an untold story that we 
will learn about in the coming days.
  This Congress and past Congresses have not been idle in the work that 
we have done to protect our resources. In fact, in this last Congress, 
we put an end to a practice that was known as ``fire borrowing,'' which 
involved raiding accounts that were not meant to go to suppression of 
wildfires to pay for increasingly expensive firefighter seasons.
  The fix for fire borrowing was included in the 2018 spending package. 
What that means is we will no longer be cannibalizing funding for fuel 
reduction for mitigation that could have prevented a fire like this. 
Instead, we will be fully funding the firefighting effort and allowing 
those mitigation dollars and those fuel reduction dollars to be 
continued to be used so we can prevent this kind of fire from 
occurring.
  We have also passed legislation for water resilience projects and 
categorical exclusions to help with forest management. We passed 
Healthy Forest Restoration Act language that includes fire and fuel 
breaks. We have worked on 20-year stewardship contracts with cottonwood 
reform. We have proceeded with reforms to fire hazard mapping

[[Page S6459]]

initiatives and to fuels management for protection of electric 
transmission lines and Good Neighbor Authority to help make sure we 
continue to give tools to our land managers.
  The 2018 farm bill built upon many of the reforms that we passed in 
the 2014 farm bill changes. We have worked to expand the Collaborative 
Forest Restoration Program. We doubled its funding to help expand Good 
Neighbor Authorities to Tribes and to counties. All of these tools will 
help us deal with the wildfires, but, certainly, they are not going to 
put this fire out today.
  So I come to the floor just to thank the men and women who are 
fighting these fires. To the leaders in these communities, the county 
commissioners, the sheriffs, the law enforcement personnel, first 
responders who have done a magnificent job in protecting structures, 
protecting their communities, protecting their people, I commend you, 
and know that you have the support of everybody here in our efforts to 
give you the tools you need to do your jobs, to be safe, and to protect 
our greatest resources and communities.
  So, again, I look forward to coming to the floor to speak about Judge 
Barrett and her nomination, but, for now, I think it is important that 
we take this time to recognize the challenge that Colorado faces and 
the need for continued work in this Chamber to address forest 
management and Healthy Forest Initiatives to make sure that we can 
prevent these fires.
  These are some of the original beetle kill areas that came in 30, 40 
years ago. It was an insect that deadened and downed trees that we knew 
at some point could be a major challenge if there was a fire, and that 
is exactly what we are seeing.
  I hope that all of my colleagues will join me in prayers for our 
State and States across the country that have been affected by 
wildfires and know that we have more work to do to prevent the loss of 
some of our greatest natural resources.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana