Pete Domenici: “I hope everyone will understand this is a very serious situation. We honestly believe there is a compromise that would…”

“I hope everyone will understand this is a very serious situation. We honestly believe there is a compromise that would work, that would prove that we can clean up parts of our forest without in any way damaging the so-called old forest trees, doing it in almost a manicured fashion so long as it is understood what was permitted to do. It is imperative we send a signal to the American people, not all of whom are in the West. Those in America who saw the fires from a distance know something is wrong. They probably know it got in this condition over many years and will not be fixed tomorrow. They probably concluded we ought to try to fix it. We are trying to have a year consistent with good rules and good solid approach to management so we can start this process so the users of the forest, and those who recreate, graze cattle, have forests in their backyard, all understand we can begin this cleanup process and move in the right direction so we can start a more major cleanup next year when we try to put new policies into effect to save the forests and not see them go up in flames.”