[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Page 26065]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              FOREST FIRES

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I come to the Chamber to express my 
profound sorrow to the families in southern California who have lost 
their homes and some who have lost their loved ones during this 
conflagration of fire. I extend my sympathy to the millions of citizens 
in southern California who have lost part of their rural refuge to 
these massive wildfires.
  Thirteen fires are burning an estimated 600,000 acres of brush and 
trees, and over 1,900 structures, as of this morning, have been burned. 
The fire has put thousands of others at risk and, of course, land and 
mud slides will come with the winter rains. More than 50,000 people 
have been evacuated as we speak. Over $20 million has been spent thus 
far on fire suppression.
  Yesterday our President declared Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San 
Diego, and Ventura Counties as major disaster areas and ordered Federal 
aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts.
  The Old Fire, which started Saturday morning and by Sunday had merged 
with the Grand Prix Fire, had grown to over 52,000 acres in only a 
matter of a few hours. It is expected now, as we speak, to consume Lake 
Arrowhead today. Many firefighters on the ground are describing this 
fire as Armageddon. For communities such as Lake Arrowhead, that have 
been suffering through the third year of western bark beetle epidemic, 
the fire was their worst nightmare. Now it has come true.
  In the San Bernardino greater forest area around Lake Arrowhead, over 
90,000 acres are now dead. They are simply kindling, standing, waiting 
for the wave of fire that is now striking that forest. If the U.S. 
Forest Service had had a streamlined NEPA and appeals process that 
recognized the importance of dealing with insects, disease, and damage 
from windstorms and ice storms, and fire, the Forest Service might have 
had the opportunity to cut fuel breaks between the live forests and the 
wildland and the urban interface.
  Sadly, the Senate has been fiddling around with H.R. 1904, and now 
southern California is ablaze. Not all of H.R. 1904 would have been 
directed to the California problem, but now that we are into the 
standing timber areas of San Bernardino, and we have watched that 
forest die through bug infestation, unable to do anything about it, 
here is where it could have helped. The wildland urban interface, where 
firebreaks could have been built, where the fire could have come down 
from the trees and onto the ground, many homes could have been saved.
  If the Forest Service didn't approach every project as a one-size-
fits-all NEPA process, they might have been able to thin the forest out 
a little, which would have increased the intensity and strength of the 
western bark beetle epidemic and perhaps reduce this risk of 
conflagration.
  If a viable forest products industry still existed in the area, one 
which closed its doors in the mid-1980s due to the Forest Service's 
failure to manage and thin the forest through the removal of trees, 
some of this pain and suffering might have been avoided.
  While it is the Forest Service's duty to manage the lands entrusted 
to them, we in the Congress also must take some blame. It seems that we 
have forgotten to provide the leadership the agency needs to understand 
our expectation of them.
  This is not new. Many of us have stood on this floor and many experts 
have spoken on the issue of forest health for a decade--whether it is 
the lower Sierras or the San Bernardino or the forests of Idaho or all 
of the Great Basin region of the West. We have 190 million acres now of 
dead and dying forests. The great tragedy is that California, with the 
Santa Ana winds that come this time of year, set up the perfect 
scenario, and now the great tragedy is hitting.
  This Congress has to deal with the issue. Senator Feinstein has been 
on the Senate floor working with it. She and I have worked together 
with the appropriate committees--the Agriculture Committee, and my 
colleague, Mike Crapo, Senator Cochran, Senator Domenici--we have all 
come together to try to solve this problem. We have a solution and it 
is H.R. 1904, and it is a positive step forward.
  It is now time for this Senate to debate this bill, vote it up or 
down. I see my colleague from California on the floor. I turn to her 
and most sincerely say, Mr. President, I express great sadness and 
sorrow for the tragedy now underway in her State. I wish it was over. 
But the firestorm that is sweeping across southern California today 
will only die with the winds and when we begin a positive effort at 
restoring the health of our natural lands and forested areas.

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