Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act

FOREST EMERGENCY RECOVERY AND RESEARCH ACT -- (House of Representatives - May 17, 2006)

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 4200, the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act. North Carolina is home to 1.2 million square acres of national forest, with the majority of those acres being located in the western North Carolina mountains.

Our forests are visited by over 6 million tourists each year and generate millions of dollars for the local economies. People from all over the country and other nations travel to cities and towns in North Carolina and my district to see the wonderful natural resources our forests hold, and many of the towns in my district depend on that tourism industry to provide jobs and economic growth. With that said, Madam Chairman, you can understand my eagerness to protect and sustain these national treasures.

In order to protect and sustain our National Forests and lands, Madam Chairman, Congress has passed environmental laws designed to guard against man-made encroachment. However, we cannot legislate against natural disasters. Even in the mountains of North Carolina, we are susceptible to hurricane damage, flooding and tornadoes, which destroy thousands of acres of National Forest.

When Hurricane Hugo swept through North Carolina, it damaged more than 2.7 million acres of forest in 26 counties, with almost complete destruction of 68,000 acres. Timber losses to the State were valued at $250 million. To make matters worse, only very little timber was able to be salvaged due to the fact that forestry experts were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of dead trees and there was no real plan to deal with such a catastrophe. By the time the forestry officials jumped through all the environmental hoops, most of the timber was either splintered or decayed, rendering it unusable.

Madam Chairman, we witnessed this exact same incident again last year, but on a larger scale. When Hurricane Katrina hit, millions of acres of forest were downed and destroyed, creating dangerous scenarios for disease, infestations and forest fires. Once again, because we had no plan in place for the recovery, forestry officials were forced to sit by and watch millions of dollars of boardfeet rot.

If H.R. 4200 were law, the Forest Service and private companies would have cleaned up the damage and salvaged the good timber.

We cannot allow the lessons of Hurricane Hugo and Katrina to be forgotten. We must design and implement a plan to deal with such scenarios.

Today, Madam Chairman, we have a chance to learn from our misfortunes and guard against losing so much again. H.R. 4200 is a common sense approach to a problem the United States faces yearly. The Forest Service needs the tool of rapid damage assessment, so they can quickly restore landscapes and prevent more forests from decaying and becoming fuel for uncontrollable wildfires. Research is also needed to expand and enhance knowledge on post-catastrophe treatments. This bill is critical to stopping disease and infestations from spreading, preventing wildfires, and maintaining healthy forests.

I would like to reassure my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that H.R. 4200 is not designed to circumvent existing environmental laws. In fact, it is the exact opposite. The provisions in this bill can only be used in case of a severe natural disaster to our national forests. The bill does not affect national parks, wilderness areas, or national monuments. The bill does not override existing environmental laws, such as the Endangered Species Act, the Wilderness Act, the Clean Air Act, or the Safe Drinking Water Act. The bill simply allows the forest service to apply common sense techniques in the case of a natural disaster. It's about time the federal government put some common sense into environmental cleanup and maintenance in my opinion.

In conclusion, Madam Chairman, I would like to thank Chairman POMBO and Chairman GOODLATTE for their work on this bill. Both their Committees held numerous hearings on the bill and carefully crafted this measure with the input of local governments and environmental groups. The bill increases collaboration among federal, state, and private interested parties. The bill enjoys wide bipartisan support and will benefit the entire country, all while saving the federal government money. Again, the bill makes sound, environmental sense and I support final passage of the bill.

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