    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
    [May 20, 2003]
    [Pages 514-518]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Healthy Forests Initiative
    May 20, 2003

        Thanks for coming, and good morning. I welcome you all to the White
    House, and I'm pleased all of you could be here to support the
    preservation of a great American treasure, our forests.
        Nine months ago, I stood at the scene of Squires Peak fire in
    Oregon. On one side of a dirt road, where small trees and underbrush had
    been removed before the fire rolled through, the forest was green and
    alive. On the other side of the road, where a similar thinning project
    had been stalled by lawsuits, the landscape was charred, and the trees
    looked like matchsticks. The contrast between these two sides of the
    forest was startling, and it was tragic.
        Active forest management could have saved both areas. It could have
    saved millions more acres across America from the devastation of severe
    forest fires and insect damage. Yet, for too many years, bureaucratic
    tangles and bad forest policy have prevented foresters from keeping our
    woodlands healthy and safe. The cost to America has been high, in the
    loss of lives and property and in the destruction of woodlands and
    wildlife.
        No region in America is immune to this problem. Wildfires, diseases,
    and insect infestations threaten the habitat of animals

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    and diminish the quality of our water. And problems on public lands hurt
    private lands as well. After all, the problems can leap across boundary
    lines to destroy homes and farms and ranches and, in some cases, towns.
        The Healthy Forests Initiative that I announced last summer is
    making American woodlands more safe, acre by acre. As we approach the
    start of fire season, we have a responsibility to do even more to
    protect our forests, and we will meet that responsibility. People who
    understand the responsibility we assume when we take office are on the
    stage with me today, namely Secretary Gale Norton and Secretary Ann Veneman. And I
    want to thank them for their leadership. And I want to thank you for
    your work.
        As well, I appreciate Jim Connaughton,
    who's the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. That means
    he works in the White House and helps coordinate policy out of the White
    House. Jimmy is doing a fine job.
        On stage with me today is Andrea Gilham.
    She's the fire management officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Who
    she represents are all the people on the frontline, the yellow shirts.
    She represents the people who put their lives at risk, sometimes because
    of bad forest policy. She represents the folks who I got to meet after
    touring some of the fire areas, who had worked themselves into complete
    exhaustion because they were serving their neighbors, because they were
    risking life to protect others. She represents the best of America, and
    I want to thank you all for coming here today.
        I also want to thank Rex Mann, who's the area
    commander for the U.S. Forest Service. Rex is a well-organized fellow.
    He's a smart man. He understands sensible policy. After all, he's made a
    career of trying to make sure sensible policy came into being to prevent
    devastation of our forests. I met Rex at the site of a tragic fire. I
    saw how well-organized he was, and I saw the fact that he commanded a
    group of great professionals, and those would be the U.S. Forest Service
    professionals. And so, Rex, thank you for coming. And I want to thank
    all the people who work for the U.S. Forest Service across our country.
        We're lucky to have some Governors, particularly out West, who
    understand practical, sensible policy, people that are working hard to
    help the world realize that not all the smarts exist in Washington, DC,
    that there's plenty capable people outside of the Nation's Capital. And
    one such Governor is with us, and that's Judy Martz, who's the chairperson of the Western Governors'
    Association, the Governor of Montana. Thank you, Judy, for coming.
        Plus, we've got some good people in the Congress who care about this
    issue, people who work in a bipartisan fashion to get the bill through.
    We've got Members of the United States Senate who are here, strong
    leaders on this issue, starting with Senator Pete Domenici from the State of New Mexico, Gordon Smith from the State of Oregon, Larry Craig from the State of Idaho, and the birthday boy,
    Senator Crapo--where are you? Congratulations,
    Mike, happy birthday.
        I want to thank the Members of the House. The House is going to take
    this bill up today, as I understand. I want to thank you all for working
    on this: Pombo, Goodlatte, McInnis; Walden of Oregon; Sherry Boehlert of New York has been a stalwart in bringing factions
    together on the floor of the House, and I want to thank you for that,
    Sherry, for your leadership; Gilchrest of
    Maryland, Taylor of North Carolina,
    Renzi of Arizona, and Mike Ross of Arkansas, thank you all for coming. I'm proud you all
    are here.
        Last year, 23 firefighters died while battling disastrous forest
    fires. Our professional firefighters take risk. We need to mitigate
    those risks by sound policy. We need to be smart about how we manage our
    forests. Those fires last year scorched 7 million acres, more than
    double the average of the

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    last 10 years. Major blazes burned in 15 States across our country,
    destroyed 815 homes. It cost the taxpayers about $1.6 billion of fire
    suppression. The economic impact of these wildfires and of mismanaged
    forests is widespread. Hard-working Americans and the communities that
    count on healthy forests are suffering.
        Since 1989, five Western States, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana,
    and California, have lost 47,000 timber jobs. Four hundred mills have
    closed in those States. At present, this year's fire outlook seems less
    severe, and that's good news for the men and women who wear the yellow.
    Yet, the danger persists, and many of our forests are facing a higher
    than normal risk of costly and catastrophic fires. The communities from
    Georgia to California that are at significant risk for those fires need
    our help. And today we pledge it; we pledge our help.
        Wildfires in unnaturally overgrown forest burn hotter and spread
    faster than normal fires. And their effects on the environment can be
    devastating. The fires sterilize soils and trigger soil erosion. They
    decimate our forests, killing even giant sequoias that have survived
    centuries of smaller fires. They destroy the habitats of endangered
    species. Last year, the fire in Hayman, Colorado, damaged the habitat of
    several species, for example, including the Mexican spotted owl.
        One reason for these deadly fires is found in decades of well-
    intentioned but misguided forest policy which has allowed dangerous
    undergrowth to build up on the forest floor. During seasonal droughts,
    these small trees and underbrush act as ladders for fires to reach to
    the tops of our oldest and tallest trees. They make forests vulnerable
    to insect infestation and disease.
        Sound science shows that we can prevent such fires by managing
    forests with controlled fire, cleaning out the underbrush, and thinning
    the areas that are vulnerable to intense fires and insect attacks. This
    is common sense, and it is the consensus of scientists, wildlife
    biologists, forestry professionals, and firefighters, the very people
    who have dedicated their lives to keeping our forests healthy and our
    community safe.
        This is policy that came from the grassroots to the White House.
    We've asked experts on how best to deal with the problem. See, we see a
    problem, and we want to deal with it for the good of the country.
        Andrea Gilham is a fire management officer
    and a member of the Blackfeet Tribe in Browning, Montana. She has been
    fighting fires since she was 19 years old, 2 years ago. [Laughter] She
    has a degree in forest resource management. She's the kind of person
    that Congress needs to listen to. She knows the cost of doing too little
    to prevent extreme wildfires. In 1990, she was working the frontlines of
    the Dude fire in Arizona's Tonto National Forest on the day six
    firefighters died. Andrea says, ``Everybody knows what we need to do.
    The longer we wait, the more likelihood a catastrophic wildfire is going
    to happen. Lives and property are at risk.''
        Everybody who's in the field knows what we need to do. Everybody
    whose job it is to protect America and the communities from wildfires
    know what we need to do. The Forest--many in the Forest Service know
    what we need to do. Enough on the House floor, I hope, know what we need
    to do. We've just got to make sure that enough Senators know what we
    need to do to propose and get through the Healthy Forests Initiative.
        And the initiative I've laid out is beginning to make sense. We've
    begun to cut through the bureaucratic redtape, and there's a lot of
    redtape here, as the people on the frontline can tell you. Since 2000,
    the Federal Government has more than doubled the amount of money
    budgeted for firefighting--and that is good--for firefighting and fire
    prevention. For '04, we budgeted an 8-percent increase. And I want to
    thank the Members of the Congress and the Senate who are working with us
    on

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    that project, to make sure we've got enough money to let these good
    folks do what they're supposed to do, on behalf of communities all
    across the country.
        This year, we've reduced the undergrowth that fuels fires on more
    than 1.3 million acres of forest and rangelands. That was nearly twice
    as many as were treated in the year 2001. We're moving at a record pace.
    We've still got a long way to go. There's a lot more work to do. One-
    hundred-and-ninety-five million acres are vulnerable to devastating
    forest fires. For the sake of our forests and for the sake the
    communities, we've got to act quickly, and that's why we've gathered
    here.
        I appreciate the Congress' hard work on the ``Healthy Forests
    Restoration Act.'' I appreciate the House moving the bill today. I urge
    Congress to get it done, to get it to my desk as quickly as possible.
    The bipartisan bill--and I emphasize ``bipartisan bill''--builds on the
    success of the Healthy Forests Initiative. It sets the goal of thinning
    trees and cleaning out underbrush and restoring the health to 20 million
    acres. I hope Congress says, when we're successful in the 20 million, we
    need to get after the 175 million more acres.
        This bill sets priorities for forest management by authorizing work
    in the areas that are closest to rural communities and work where
    there's the greatest risk for environmental damage. It's a practical
    piece of legislation. It's good, commonsense environmental policy, is
    what we're talking about.
        The ``Healthy Forests Restoration Act'' helps the people closest to
    the problem by allowing local citizens to help plan projects for
    nonprofit, for profit, and for stewardship groups. And these citizens
    can benefit economically from selling the smaller trees that are cleared
    out from the forests.
        Local citizens can be great allies in the effort to protect our
    forests. Ron Bell is with us today--where are you,
    Ron? There he is. Hi, Ron--thought you would have gotten a better seat.
    [Laughter] He spent 22 years in the Army before coming home to manage
    his family cattle and tree farm near Batesville, Arkansas. About 6 years
    ago, when Ron noticed the health of the forest in his area deteriorating
    from insect infestation, he decided to do something about it. Ron, his
    wife, and their two sons spent an entire winter cleaning out the
    diseased and lower-quality trees that were crowding out the taller trees
    in his 40-acre forest.
        When he was finished, the forest was healthier. The bugs were gone,
    and he had made about $15,000 from the sale of the undergrowth that he
    cleared away. Today he belongs to a group of nearly 200 landowners in
    central Arkansas who are working to manage their woodlands and to keep
    the bugs out. Ron says some of the landowners who
    live near national forest areas are worried because the Government moves
    too slowly in treating our own forests. Here's what he says: ``The
    conditions are preventable with a little bit of management. You don't
    just have to throw up your hands. There are times you need to get in
    there quickly, when the situation is dire.''
        And the situation is dire across America. We need to listen to the
    voices of reasoned people. We need to get the politics out of this, and
    we need to focus on what's best for America, is what we need to do. We
    need to bring people together, for the sake of our forests, for the sake
    of those who work to see that our forests are healthy, for the sake of
    those who sacrifice to fight the fires. That's what we need to do here
    in Washington, DC. We need less bickering, less politics, and more
    sound, commonsense policy. And that's what we're talking about right
    here today.
        And the reason why that is necessary is because our forests are a
    treasure, and we are their stewards. We must preserve them. We must
    protect the people and communities who depend on them. We must fulfill
    our promise to the next generation--that's what we must do--and leave
    behind a

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    world as blessed and as beautiful as the one our parents left us.
        Thank you for your interest in this important subject. May God bless
    your work, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
    Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden
    at the White House. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a
    Spanish language transcript of these remarks.