Political Quotes

“this editorial points out the plan that President Bush has proposed, as largely reflected in the proposal Senator Burns and Senator Craig and others have been talking about, is the way to scientifically manage our forests. We are bragging a little bit in Arizona because one of the scientists who pioneered this technique is Dr. Wally Covington of Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. He and Stephen Campbell of the University of Arizona conducted these landmark management studies and demonstrated that by returning our forests to the conditions in which they existed 100 years ago, we can save them from disease, insect infestation, and catastrophic wildfire. What that entails is going in and mechanically thinning and removing--thinning the small-diameter trees that clog the forests and removing that and the other debris from the forest--cleaning up the forests, in effect; then when that debris has largely been removed, introducing fire through a prescribed burn in the wet, cooler months of October or November so the fire doesn't get out of control. There is not nearly as much fuel to burn and it is cooler. Then, at that point, basically we let nature take its course.”