[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 22807-22808]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WILDFIRE SUPPRESSION

  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I rise to share some news from my home 
State. I am anxiously following the wildfires burning across Montana. 
Over the last few weeks, tens of thousands of acres of the Treasure 
State have burned. In fact, the top four fires in the West are burning 
in Montana. Hundreds of folks have been evacuated from their homes. 
Interestingly enough, today, August 3rd, is traditionally only the 
third day of the wildfire season. Times are changing.
  This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the front lines of 
two Montana wildfires, which tell two different fire policy stories. 
One thing they have clearly got in common: fine, hardworking men and 
women toughing it out in grueling conditions to protect each other and 
the public from harm's way. In my State, we are also relying on the 
hardworking folks in the Montana National Guard. As of today, about 130 
guardsmen and women have been called to help fight Montana's fires. 
Some of these folks cancelled summer plans to answer the call to help. 
They are working alongside other firefighters to do dangerous, hot, 
dirty work to protect Montana's people and property.
  To all wildland firefighters across this country, I say thank you. We 
owe them all respect and gratitude. We also owe them policies that will 
best benefit the landscape they are working so hard to protect.
  The two fires I visited both started the same week, in late June. 
That is really early for Montana. Both are burning in the Bob Marshall 
Wilderness, a spectacular place where the Rocky Mountains spill onto 
the plains. The Ahorn fire was 15,000 acres when I visited. It is now 
over 40,000 acres, burning 30 miles west of the ranching and farming 
community of Augusta.
  The Forest Service is concerned because the Ahorn fire is big and 
unwieldy. It is burning near a ``fire exclusion'' area, an area that 
the Forest Service has not allowed fire to burn over the years in order 
to protect seasonal cabins on private land east near the forest 
boundary. As a result of the fuels that built up over the years due to 
suppressing fire, the Ahorn fire is going to do pretty much what the 
fire wants to do. The Forest Service threw $1 million at it when it 
first took off, and that ``didn't make a dent,'' according to the fire 
officials. The agency says it will not be successful in controlling the 
perimeter of the fire, though it probably will be successful at 
protecting those cabins.
  This has nothing to do with the agency's abilities. It has everything 
to do with fires that burn hotter and harder now because of a hotter 
climate and denser forests. To date, the Ahorn fire has cost nearly $5 
million.
  Last Saturday, I also got a chance to see the Fool Creek fire. That 
fire was 6,200 acres when I saw it. Today it is about 22,000 acres. The 
Fool Creek fire is burning west of Choteau, another ranching and 
farming community. The Forest Service has been managing the Fool Creek 
fire as a ``Wildland Fire Use For Resource Benefit,'' which means fire 
bosses have been mostly allowing it to burn for the benefit of the 
forest. So far, it has been a lot more manageable because it is moving 
in and around lands that burned in 1988 and in 2000. It is still hot 
and dry out there and the fire made a big run yesterday, but all told, 
the fire has been easier to manage than Ahorn. To date, the Fool Creek 
fire has cost $1.3 million. That is four times less than the cost of 
fighting the Ahorn fire, with similar outcomes.
  It is not very popular to tell the American people that the Forest 
Service is letting the woods burn. But what we have learned in the last 
20 years is: sometimes, it is the right thing to do.
  We have another problem in my home State, and that's the holdover 
from longstanding fights on how to manage our forests. We will never 
get back to the timber harvest levels of the 1970s, nor should we. But 
the pendulum has swung too far, and now we are too often fighting in 
the courts about cutting down trees. Quite frankly, we don't have 
enough people working out in the woods. That is a problem economically 
and ecologically. Throw in climate change, thousands of acres of dead, 
dry beetle-infested trees, and lots of new houses popping up on the 
edges of our national forests, and we have a perfect storm brewing.
  I don't think it is a coincidence that, with all the fuel buildup in 
our forests and the hottest summer on record, we're in the middle of a 
whopper of a fire season. Climatologists tell me that this is becoming 
the new norm. This is what we can continue to expect. Which means we 
have to get even smarter about when to fight wildfire, and where, and 
how best to stretch every dollar spent on battling them. And we have to 
get serious about supporting the Forest Service as it reduces fuels in 
the forests.
  With the Forest Service spending 45 percent of its budget on fire 
suppression, it barely has the time or the resources to restore our 
forests to health. With firefighting costs predicted to go even higher, 
creating a trust fund for fire management makes a great deal of sense 
to me. It is something we have to do in order to ensure that funds will 
be available to do the work of restoring health to our forests. Because 
when we restore our forests, we will make them more resilient to fire. 
This is something we have to do, and we have to do it fast, especially 
around our Western towns and communities.
  This issue won't go away when fire season comes to an end. The 
conversation will continue with my colleagues here in Washington and 
with all folks in. Montana. We'll be talking about fire and forest 
health and the opportunities they provide us. They are connected, and 
they are connected to Montana's well-being and economy.

[[Page 22808]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, while the Senator from Montana is still on 
the Senate floor, let me, first of all, thank him for his comments, to 
which I subscribe. We have a problem throughout the Western United 
States with forest fires, not easily understood by those who don't 
experience the kind of hot, dry conditions we do in the summer with our 
forests.
  People don't think there are forests in my State of Arizona. There 
are. In fact, about 5 years ago, we had a fire which burned an area--
and this is big Ponderosa Pine country--burned an area almost the size 
of the State of Rhode Island.
  Now, in Arizona and Montana, you can do that. But just think about 
that if it were in your State. One of the problems is, we have found 
that the Healthy Forest Act that we passed about 3 years ago, which was 
designed to limit litigation, has not done as good a job as we had 
hoped.
  I think we need to revisit that in addition to providing more 
funding. I will conclude this point by saying that one of the best 
summers of my life was spent in the State of Montana in Glacier 
National Park helping to put out forest fires in that beautiful place.
  I hope all of us can join together in an appropriate way to advance 
the cause about which the Senator from Montana was speaking.
  Mr. TESTER. I thank the Senator from Arizona. I think communication 
and trust is critical if we are going to address the issues in our 
forests today. I think if we can develop good communication with all 
parties involved, we will help move our forests to a healthier level.
  I thank the Senator for his comments.

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