[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 30, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MANAGING OUR FORESTS

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, radical environmentalists have weaponized 
the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, 
known as NEPA, and are using frivolous lawsuits to block nearly every 
management project or salvage sale after fire that the U.S. Forest 
Service proposes.
  This has helped result in over 68 million acres of forest land burned 
in the last decade and over 10 million acres just in 2020 alone.
  I am pleased to see President Biden today is speaking about how to 
address wildfires. One important component I hope he will look into and 
help rectify is we desperately need to rectify the litigation and the 
amount of stoppage of forest management that is the result of 
environmental groups.
  These groups have worked very hard to advance the false scenario that 
climate change is somehow responsible for the increasing vulnerability 
of forests. This is flatout false. The truth is that the decline of 
responsible timber harvesting and the lack of active management are 
undeniably the real culprits.
  In California, most forest types historically had, in the past, about 
64 trees per acre. They now sit at an average of over 300 trees per 
acre. Indeed, too much inventory.
  We need to get back to basics and manage our forests and help prevent 
this fire problem.

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