[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13323-13324]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        CONCERNS OVER FOREST FIRES IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, as we come back after our 
August district work period, there have been several major events that 
have happened and generally do happen in late summer in the western 
part of the United States. Those events generally revolve around forest 
fires.
  I'm joined on the floor tonight by a number of my colleagues from the 
western part of the United States in whose districts we've experienced 
some of these forest fires. But the reason we wanted to have this time, 
Mr. Speaker, is because this issue about forest management that I'm 
going to get into and my colleagues will be getting into has been 
building up for some time.
  I have the privilege to chair the House Natural Resources Committee. 
We have broad jurisdiction over all Federal lands, and that certainly 
includes our forested lands. And what I have observed in the time that 
I've had the privilege to be in this body is that our national forests 
are being badly mismanaged, particularly on Federal lands. They're 
being badly mismanaged generally because of events and regulations 
coming from the Federal Government. We'll talk about that a bit 
tonight. But there is a solution to what we will be discussing tonight 
for the problems we've had in the western part of the United States 
with these forest fires--and that's the Healthy Forest Act that we'll 
have on the floor, hopefully, later on this month.
  As the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, I have always 
felt that all Federal lands, unless otherwise designated, should be for 
multiple purposes. That includes recreation, that includes commercial 
activity, and that includes whatever activity would be allowed unless 
Congress otherwise designates. And those designations could be national 
parks, they could be wilderness areas, they could be national 
monuments. But unless Congress otherwise designates, these areas should 
be for multiple purposes. In many respects, that goes to the crux of 
the problem that we'll be talking about tonight: the high incidence of 
forest fires on our Federal lands.
  What we propose in the Healthy Forest Act that I hope will be on the 
floor here later this month and has passed out of committee by a voice 
vote is that on Federal lands where there is multiple purpose, there 
should be target dates for harvesting timber. If one looks at timber 
like any other commercial crop, the only difference is timber harvests 
happen in a longer period of time--generally, 30 to 40 years. But you 
should still manage that crop. That means thinning and doing all the 
things you do with any other commercial crop. This hasn't been done. As 
a result, this has led to these catastrophic forest fires that we've 
had.
  I know there will be a chart on the floor later on that shows when 
you reduce harvests, the incidence of wildfires goes up dramatically. 
But it's gotten to the point where it's getting into the taxpayers' 
pocket. It's getting into the taxpayers' pocket because when we were 
properly managing land some 30 years or more ago, for every dollar that 
the Federal Government spent on managing our forest lands, $2 would 
come back in return, generally from the revenue that was realized 
because of harvesting. But now, Mr. Speaker, that ratio is exactly 
reversed. For every $2 spend, we only get $1 back.

                              {time}  1730

  As a result, it is getting into the pocket of the taxpayer when we're 
running these trillion-dollar deficits. Where we could have a positive 
cash flow, we don't have a positive cash flow.
  So the response to that is to set target dates in various forests for 
how much timber should be harvested. Now, Mr. Speaker, this is not just 
on the Federal level where there would be a benefit. There is a benefit 
also to local communities within various counties that are heavily 
timbered on Federal forest lands.
  Back some 100 years ago, when we were looking at using these forests 
as national assets, there was a promise by the Federal Government to 
give local counties 25 percent of the revenue that they got for timber. 
This was their source of income, and it worked well for some 80 years. 
But because of the regulations that I mentioned in my brief opening 
remarks, and particularly in the Northwest, and particularly in 
Washington, Oregon, and in northern California, because of the 
Endangered Species Act--and specifically within the Endangered Species 
Act, the spotted owl--timber harvests have dropped off dramatically. 
That means these counties have lost their revenue. In fact, in 
Washington, Oregon, and California, in the last 20 years, timber 
harvest has fallen by 90 percent on Federal lands; and so, as a result, 
those counties that relied on the revenue from forest activity simply 
don't have any other means of income.

[[Page 13324]]

  Unfortunately, that's one of those issues that needs to be addressed. 
We do address that in the Healthy Forests Act by allowing counties to 
manage these Federal forests and get a return as they did--it started 
some 100 years ago--of 25 percent of the harvest.
  So these are issues that we will be discussing tonight, some in more 
detail, how they affect individual districts. And we hope to have this 
bill on the floor, as I mentioned, later on this month. It did pass out 
of committee, by the way, on a voice vote. I think that is significant. 
I think more and more people are understanding the need to properly 
manage our forests.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize first a gentleman whose 
district was heavily impacted. We all heard about the forest fires 
surrounding Yosemite National Park. So, Mr. Speaker, I want to yield 
back my time but recognize the gentleman from California (Mr. 
McClintock).
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Hastings for organizing this 
discussion and for his work on H.R. 1526, the Restoring Healthy Forests 
for Healthy Communities Act. This act takes on a poignant and crucial 
importance to my district in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California 
where the Yosemite rim fire continues to burn through nearly 400 square 
miles of forestland.
  For years foresters have warned us that the excess timber will come 
out of the forest one way or another. It will either be carried out or 
it will be burned out, but it will come out. For generations we carried 
the excess timber out of our forests through sound forest management 
practices, leaving room for the remaining trees to grow healthy and 
strong. We had far less frequent and less intense forest fires, healthy 
trees that were disease resistant and pest resistant, and a healthier 
watershed as well as a thriving economy.
  But today, extremist environmental regulations have driven that 
harvest down by more than 80 percent in the Sierras in the past 30 
years. We now consign the forests to a policy of benign neglect. And 
rather than harvesting a small percentage of the trees to keep our 
forests healthy and fire resistant, we are watching more than 400 
square miles of Sierra Nevada incinerated. If we had just harvested a 
small fraction of those trees, it's quite possible that we could have 
spared the Sierras from the conflagrations that are now feeding on 
excessive fuels. It is also likely we could have snuffed out those 
fires almost immediately after they started.
  A generation ago, small harvesting crews operated throughout the 
mountains and they moved along well-maintained timber roads. When a 
fire first broke out, it took no time for a crew with a bulldozer to 
get to that fire and stop it before it got out of control. Today, those 
crews are gone, the roads are in disrepair, and so fires that a 
generation ago consumed just a few acres now consume hundreds of 
thousands of acres.
  The result of these misguided policies is now clear and undeniable: 
economically devastated communities, closed timber mills, unemployed 
families, overgrown forests, overdrawn watersheds, jeopardized 
transmission lines, rampant disease and pestilence, and increasingly 
intense and frequent forest fires. That is the story of the towns 
throughout the Sierra Nevada--once thriving and prosperous communities 
that have been devastated by these policies. This is not 
environmentalism. True environmentalists recognize the damage done by 
overgrowth and overpopulation and they recognize the role of sound, 
sustainable forest management practices in maintaining healthy forests.
  If there is any doubt of the connection between the reduction of 
timber harvesting and the increase in acreage incinerated by forest 
fires, I ask you to look at this chart. It shows the board feet of 
timber harvested from our public lands since 1983 and the forest 
acreage destroyed by fire. There is nothing subtle about these numbers. 
As the timber harvest has declined, the acreage destroyed by fire has 
increased contemporaneously and proportionally. It is either carried 
out or burned out, and at the moment it's being burned out.
  They say there isn't enough money for forest thinning, And yet we 
used to have no problem keeping our forests thinned and healthy when we 
sold commercially viable timber. The problem is that if they take place 
at all, timber harvests are restricted to small diameter trees with no 
commercial value. I mean, can you imagine a fishery or a wildlife 
policy limited to taking only the smallest juveniles of the species? 
Thus, the U.S. Forest Service, which once produced revenues through 
timber sales, now consumes revenues, and even that isn't enough to 
maintain the acreage the government owns and controls. The mountain 
communities that once thrived economically are now economically 
prostrate, with unemployment levels that rival those of Detroit.
  This act is long overdue. By streamlining regulations and refocusing 
the Forest Service's mission on sound forest management practices, H.R. 
1526 will mean environmentally healthy forests and economically 
healthier communities.
  Ironically, just 2 weeks before the Yosemite rim fire broke out, 
Congressman Nunes and I hosted a public meeting on a proposal by the 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would add more restrictions on 
nearly 2 million acres of the Sierras. Our expert witnesses warned 
urgently of the fire dangers these policies have created, yet these 
warnings were actually ridiculed by leftist newspapers like the 
Sacramento Bee. How sad. Two weeks later, the Yosemite rim fire was 
burning out of control.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of my district, I want to thank 
the gentleman from Washington for this important reform. I only wish it 
had come in time to prevent the environmental devastation we are now 
suffering this summer in the Sierras.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.

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