[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 17, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H2486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REFORMING 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, the United States is now the number one 
importer of wood products. It had been China up until recently when 
they finally slowed down their building.
  This shouldn't even be possible or happening.
  As you see, Mr. Speaker, California, the West Coast, and Western 
States have massively overcrowded forests due to the inattention of the 
U.S. Forest Service not keeping up the pace and scale to keep up with 
the amount of board feet that are growing each year.
  Take a look across a lot of rural America, Mr. Speaker, and you will 
see that these areas are, indeed, too overcrowded with trees. A healthy 
forest might have 50 to 70 adult trees per acre. We see a situation 
where there are 500 to 1,000 trees of all sizes.
  For a healthy and resilient forest, each tree needs enough nutrients, 
water, and sunlight to thrive, but when the trees grow too close 
together, they compete for these resources, are weakened, and then are 
susceptible to insects and other damage.
  You can see on the far side of this poster, Mr. Speaker, a dense 
forest that is going to be very fire-prone and very likely to be 
attacked by bugs or go through a drought period and become unhealthy.
  A thin forest like this is what we need the Forest Service to be 
doing. It survives fire and is much healthier for much longer. This is 
what we need.

                          ____________________