Bruce Westerman: “I thank the gentleman from Utah. I turn now to California, an area of California that is very dry, an area that has…”

“I thank the gentleman from Utah. I turn now to California, an area of California that is very dry, an area that has experienced a lot of forest fires. From talking to this gentleman, I know that a lot of those forest fires can be prevented, that we could have an abundance of resources, yet we seem to waste and mismanage these resources. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock). Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I will speak on a related matter, and that is how our Forest Service approaches fire in our densely overcrowded and drought-stricken forest. Madam Speaker, on July Fourth, lightning struck a tree in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Alpine County, California, starting a small fire that smoldered just over a quarter of an acre of rugged terrain. Now, instead of immediately attacking this fire, the U.S. Forest Service decided to monitor it instead--that is to say, to do precisely nothing. On July 16, 12 days later, that small fire of a quarter of an acre, now called the Tamarack fire, exploded out of control. It has now consumed 70,000 acres as of this writing. One of the towns in its path is Woodfords, California. In 1987, the Woodfords Fire Department responded to a report of fire on Forest Service land near their town in the same forest. They, too, were turned away. In fact, Federal officials threatened Woodfords' residents with arrest for even trying to extinguish the small blaze.…”