[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 189 (Tuesday, December 6, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H8782-H8783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EFFECTIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT

  (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, it is raining in California, finally.
  I know that song from the 1970s would say otherwise, but we are 
seeing some relief from the drought. It is partially man-made, 
partially government-made, by letting all of our water run to the ocean 
instead of to farms and to people. That said, our fire season is also 
over for a while in most of the State.
  Let me just remind you: This map here is just a portion of northern 
California. This half of this fire area is about 1 million acres from 
last year called the Dixie fire. Many other fires in just the last 4 
years represent about 2 million acres, just in one section of one 
State.
  This calls out the need--even though it is the off-season, and we 
have forgotten about the fire now because it is raining--to have forest 
management that is actually effective.
  We need the U.S. Forest Service to take this issue head-on instead of 
more talk, more mealymouth, more plans, treating maybe 1 million acres 
a year,

[[Page H8783]]

2 million acres per year, when the Forest Service has under its charge 
200 million acres.
  We need to bring in the private sector and everybody we can to get 
ahead on forest thinning and forest management so we don't keep burning 
our communities down and causing all the air pollution, water quality 
issues, loss of wildlife. Meanwhile, we are the second-leading importer 
of lumber in the world.
  What are we doing here? It is time for action.

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