Norman D. Dicks

So I commend you for challenging us. I think what you have done is lay out a new opportunity, and I think it is very positive.

I just think this is such an important project, and I hope that we can continue to work with the Administration to move this thing forward.

I think it is going to be one of the greatest restoration projects that we have done...

It is wrong that we just let this thing get worse, and I would like you for the record to tell us what your backlog is.

Whatever you do has to be scientifically credible and legally defensible.

I think that part of the conservation agenda for this country has to involve urban communities, and that is through urban rivers.

One of the things when we retook the majority that we reinstituted, which I hope we will always do no matter who is in the majority, is having the tribal leaders come in and testify before the committee.

Well, and is it not true that it is 2 percent of the fires that get to be mega fires, and that is where the real cost is? So having a strategy to deal with that fact is very critical.

I think the last thing we want to do is throw more money--if we cannot spend the money we have already got.

I am a big supporter of the Forest Legacy program and I am also a big fan of water conservation, but if I had to choose between buying another piece of land and taking care of important research issues like this, I am not sure I would make…

Before we enter into a prolonged debate about climate change and its source, our ability to regulate it, the cost of these regulations, and the economic impact of those regulations, please review for the committee how we got to this.

This is the most important program. Why would we do that?