Bruce Westerman: “I urge my colleagues to look at the science. I urge my colleagues to look at the law, look at what wilderness area…”

“I urge my colleagues to look at the science. I urge my colleagues to look at the law, look at what wilderness area means. It means untrampled by man. It means man has a hands-off approach to it. Wilderness areas can be resilient to fire if they are designated appropriately, but when we have the experts at the BLM and the Forest Service saying these lands are not suitable for wilderness areas, when these areas are close to roads, when they are close to homes and property, we are treading on dangerous ground here. We are not applying the science. We are not applying the opinions of the experts. We are just saying we want to randomly call something wilderness area and think that, randomly, our approach is going to be suppression. If our idea of management is suppression, we are losing ground. We should be doing things to prevent fire. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And if our plan is we are just going to roll the dice but we can put the fire out when these wilderness areas catch on fire, I think we are sending the wrong message and we are making bad policy. So, again, I encourage my colleagues to vote for this amendment that is common sense and that will do good in the long run. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time. Ms. DeGETTE. Mr.…”