[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2030
                     RESILIENT FEDERAL FORESTS ACT

  (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, Pennsylvania's Fifth 
Congressional District, which I am proud to represent, includes the 
Allegheny National Forest. The forest covers more than 500,000 acres, 
and the use of its hardwoods has supported the communities of the Elk, 
Forest, McKean, and Warren Counties for generations.
  Mr. Speaker, since these small towns depend on the harvesting of 
trees from the Allegheny National Forest, I am deeply concerned by the 
news that, while the amount of timber cut in the forest has increased 
in recent years, the number sold has sharply declined.
  In fact, timber sales have gone down 19 percent in the past 5 years. 
Furthermore, a majority of the timber harvested is being sold as pulp 
and not as the high-value hardwood which is used to create furniture, 
flooring, and as veneers.
  This is one of the reasons I cosponsored the Resilient Federal 
Forests Act, which passed the House earlier this year, as it would 
enhance the management efforts in our national forests to make sure our 
quality hardwoods are being used in the right ways.

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