Healthy Forests

HEALTHY FORESTS

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, last week, we passed an amended version of H.R. 1904, the Healthy Forests Act.

While this bill is not everything I hoped it would be, it is an improvement over what was proposed by the President and passed by the House. The devastating fires in California and throughout the West over the past few years have added great urgency to the need to remove dangerous fuel loads from many of our forests. We need to treat those hazards now, and this bill is really the only relevant legislation that can pass Congress and be signed into law by the President this year. That is why I voted for the bill on final passage.

During the floor debate, I offered an amendment to strengthen the underlying bill's old-growth protections and I also voted for a number of other amendments. It is unfortunate that these amendments were not accepted because they would have reassured a greater portion of our citizens of the real intent of the legislation and would have made it more effective.

We don't have the funding we need to remove all the dangerous fuel loads in our forests. We should have made more funding available and ensured more resources were focused on the wildland urban interface that presents the greatest risk to property and to the lives of our firefighters and citizens.

While the underlying bill will increase authorization levels for fuel reduction activities, it does not guarantee this money will be made available. We should have passed Senator Bingaman's amendment that would have guaranteed the funding and stopped the raiding of fuel reduction accounts to pay for fire suppression.

Likewise, the Senate bill is an improvement over the House legislation in directing at least 50 percent of the work be conducted in the wildland urban interface, but we should have strengthened this directive by passing Senator Boxer's amendment that would have raised wildland/urban interface work to 70 percent.

Lastly, the underlying bill made an earnest attempt to provide some protection for old-growth stands in our national forests. Unfortunately, the bill leaves a couple of significant loopholes that, if abused by our forest managers, could threaten these ancient trees. That is why I offered an amendment to close these loopholes and better protect old-growth stands. Unfortunately, my amendment was defeated.

Now that the Senate has spoken on the overall bill, the House should take up this legislation and pass it unaltered. The President should drop his opposition to the increased spending associated in the bill and urge its quick passage by the House. The President's opposition to increased spending presents a real and tangible risk to every community looking to treat forests surrounding their homes, schools, and businesses.

If this bill is signed into law, the burden will shift to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to implement the programs in the most responsible and effective manner possible.

Again, they will need to focus on protecting communities. It will be unacceptable to treat forest stands far from human population while any community's wildland/urban interface remains untreated.

They need to focus on taking out of the forests the materials that truly threaten to generate catastrophic wildfires. We should not see large, fire resistant trees being removed from our forests under the guise of "healthy forests." Any old-growth stands that are treated need to be treated in ways that protect their unique ecosystems.

Finally, in a fiscally responsible manner, the agencies need to maximize the positive economic influence these fuel reduction projects can have on our rural economies. This means not only hiring local workers and companies to conduct the work, but also looking for opportunities to use the resulting material for other economic enterprises.

The bill passed by the Senate has the potential to truly work in a manner nearly everyone can accept. Alteration by the House or poor implementation by the agencies will only threaten our wildfire endangered communities.

I am committed to making this legislation work and stand ready to assist the communities in Washington State protect their families and homes.