[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 37 (Monday, September 16, 2002)]
[Page 1535]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Proposed Legislation To Implement the Healthy Forests 
Initiative

September 12, 2002

    Just 3 weeks ago, I visited Oregon to see firsthand the devastating 
effects of the catastrophic wildfires that have burned more than 6 
million acres of forests across the West this summer. I also announced a 
new and commonsense initiative to restore forest health and prevent 
these unnaturally severe fires. I directed Secretaries Veneman and 
Norton to work with Congress to develop legislation to address the 
crisis in forest and rangeland health that has put more than 190 million 
acres of public land--an area twice the size of California--at risk of 
catastrophic fires. We have a simple choice: We can act now to protect 
these forests, or we can stand by and watch them burn. Secretaries 
Norton and Veneman delivered to Congress a legislative package that 
meets our responsibility to reduce fire risks quickly in high-priority 
areas, and I am very pleased that this proposal was introduced in the 
House of Representatives today. There is bipartisan agreement that 
public lands of the West are desperately in need of active management 
efforts to restore forest and rangeland health. I call upon Congress to 
act upon this urgent priority as quickly as possible.