Wildfires and Forest Management
Floor Speech
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Mr. ZINKE. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support to remind my colleagues in the Senate that the Western United States is on fire. We don't have time for inaction and more political pandering.
The House has passed the Resilient Federal Forests Act, which includes vital reforms that can be implemented tomorrow if our colleagues in the Senate take the bill up.
So why don't we do what is right for America? Why don't we come together and move the bill?
This wildfire season has been one of the worst in the last 10 years, and it has had enormous cost. Despite the cooler conditions in Montana, we have 35 fires that are continuing to burn, a total of 334,000 acres gone. That is equivalent to 522 miles, square miles. Two-thirds of this acreage belongs to the public, our national forests.
And it is not just the physical damage. We lost four firefighters in Washington, four that paid the sacrifice fighting forest fires, and we have to remember that.
I was at a fire in Glacier National Park. It was a reburn from a fire that occurred in 2003. The reburn happened to occur because of a threat of a lawsuit which prevented the Forest Service from doing the right thing. What they wanted to do was salvage timber. But because there was standing timber, ground crews couldn't get at it. And when ground crews couldn't get it, that means they had to fly aircraft at $3,000 an hour to put out the fire. That is wrong. It is wrong for Montana, and it is wrong for America.
I know the firsthand value of our natural resources. I am a conservationist. But I also know the value of tourism in Montana. I also know the value of clean air. And when the smoke in Montana--which people travel all the way from across this country and the world to go to--is worse than Beijing, it has an impact.
It also has an impact on the elderly, the asthmatic. It is unhealthy. Worst of all, it is preventable.
The problem is real. Not only does the Forest Service lack the resources to adequately fight fires, it has a land management problem at the source.
Former Chief of the Forest Service, Dale Bosworth, his quote before the hearing was: ``We do not have a fire problem ..... we have a land management problem.''
This isn't from a political member. This is from a scientist. And yes, we need more scientists in the woods and less lawyers.
That is why I am proud of what we did in the House on H.R. 2647. We passed it back in July because we saw this problem coming, and so we crafted a solution. That is what we are all sent here to do. We were sent here for solutions, to look at the challenges ahead and make a difference.
So this bill addresses both the fire borrowing problem and the practices that have created the crisis that we now, unfortunately, have to bear. It does address lawsuits that are frivolous. The number one expense in the Forest Service is fighting forest fires, Number two is litigation, and if they have any money left, then that is what they use for management.
Why are we spending, this fire season, over $600 million in August alone? Don't we all agree that $600 million can be better utilized by preventing forest fires, by restoring habitat, by providing better public access, better recreational activities and opportunities on our public lands?
Unfortunately, we have lost this fire season, and still it burns.
Unfortunately, the Senate won't take up the bill. My fellow Montanan Senator Steve Daines has been a loud and vocal advocate of this bill. He understands, and I am asking his colleagues to stand and do the right thing: Take the bill up. If you don't like a provision in the bill, then show leadership and put an amendment on it and we will work together to fix it. That is what leadership does. But to sit there and not take up the bill and have no action is unacceptable.
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