[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 12, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H5970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WE MUST SAVE THE GIANT SEQUOIAS

  (Mr. WESTERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, after visiting the Mariposa Grove of 
giant sequoias, Teddy Roosevelt famously declared: ``A grove of giant 
redwood or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great and 
beautiful cathedral.''
  Madam Speaker, today that cathedral is on fire. The very grove in 
which President Roosevelt stood is enveloped in flames as we speak, 
threatening to destroy these iconic trees forever.
  We are seeing the horrific consequences of decades of forest 
mismanagement play out in Yosemite, and it is time to act to save our 
sequoias.
  Wildfires burn so hot and so intensely that they quite literally 
explode giant sequoias and create ``fire-nados,'' sending branches and 
bark hurling so far into the air that they have narrowly missed taking 
out our firefighting planes. If giant sequoias can't withstand these 
raging infernos, no tree stands a chance.
  Time is not on our side, Madam Speaker. I urge immediate action on 
the Save Our Sequoias Act to give land managers in California the 
resources they so desperately need, preventing firefighters from having 
to resort to desperate measures to save these national treasures. This 
is the only way we can conserve America's most beautiful cathedral for 
generations to come.

                          ____________________