[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5133]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        RESTORING THE HEALTHY MANAGEMENT OF OUR NATIONAL FORESTS

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, over a century ago, the 
Federal Government pledged to actively manage our forests when Congress 
created the National Forest System. This management includes activities 
such as prescribed fires and thinning--and, yes, timber harvesting is a 
core part of this duty. A portion of the revenues reaped from the 
forests would go to the counties containing National Forest lands in 
order to supplant the lost local tax revenues. Unfortunately, the 
Federal Government has failed to uphold this commitment.
  One example is revealed when you compare the harvests of adjacent 
lands. In the Fifth District of Pennsylvania, the Collins Pine Company 
currently owns 120,000 acres in the Allegheny Plateau, an area adjacent 
to the Allegheny National Forest, which totals 493,000 acres of forest 
land. Collins Pine sustainably harvests the same amount of timber as 
the entire Allegheny National Forest on less than a quarter of the 
acreage. This lack of adequate forest management has deprived rural 
counties of revenue needed to fund critical local projects such as 
schools and infrastructure projects.
  Mr. Speaker, we must restore the active and healthy management of our 
national forests in order to provide a stable revenue stream for rural 
schools and counties and to help build back these robust local 
economies.

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