[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 5998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1115
                         NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dold). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the House 
Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, which I chair, 
conducted a hearing to review the National Forest System and active 
forest management.
  The health of our national forests is an issue of vital importance 
for rural America. Not only are national forests a source of immense 
natural beauty, but they provide us with natural resources, healthy 
watersheds, recreational opportunities, and wildlife habitat.
  Perhaps more importantly, they serve as economic engines for the 
surrounding local communities. Our national forests are capable of 
providing and sustaining these economic benefits, but they need proper 
management in order to do so.
  The U.S. Forest Service manages more than 193 million acres of land 
across 41 States. Within those 41 States are over 700 counties 
containing national forestland. These counties and communities within 
them rely on us to be good stewards of these Federal lands, and there 
is a direct correlation between forest health and vibrant rural 
communities.
  The people living in these rural areas depend on well-managed 
national forests to foster jobs and economic opportunities. These jobs 
come from diverse sources, such as timbering, energy production, or 
recreation. However, if those jobs disappear, so do jobs that support 
those industries. It is a snowball effect from there, threatening 
school systems and infrastructure in these rural communities.
  As a result, effective management and Forest Service decisions have 
significant consequences on our constituents who live in and around 
national forests. Healthier, well-managed national forests are more 
sustainable for generations to come due to the continual risks of 
catastrophic fires and invasive species outbreaks. Especially with the 
decline in timber harvesting and the revenue to counties from timber 
receipts over the past two decades, rural economies will benefit 
immensely from increased timber harvest.
  We can continue supporting a diverse population of wildlife through 
active land management practices, such as prescribed burns. Our 
national forests are not museums. They were never intended to sit idly. 
I say it frequently, but national forests are not national parks.
  When Congress created the National Forest System more than 100 years 
ago, it was designed so that surrounding communities would benefit from 
multiple uses. Our national forests are meant to provide timber, oil, 
natural gas, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and clean 
drinking water, not just for the rural communities, but these tend to 
be the headwaters of the waters that provide water for our cities as 
well.
  During yesterday's hearing, members of the Conservation and Forestry 
Subcommittee called upon Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell to use the 
tools that Congress made available in the 2014 farm bill in order to 
strengthen rural economies and improve the health of our national 
forests. One certainly complements the other.

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