Political Quotes

“I rise today to introduce the Community Wood Facilities Assistance Act of 2021. My colleagues Senators Collins, Shaheen, and Kelly are joining me as original cosponsors of the bill. This bill will assist with the construction of facilities for mass timber, tall wood, and other innovative wood products, in order to make sustainable use of small-diameter timber from forest thinnings and other needed treatments in Eastern and Western forests. The bill will also help to create jobs in disadvantaged rural and forest-dependent communities, and will help to reduce wildfire risk by removing dangerous fuels that can build up. The Forest Service reports that 80 million acres of Forest Service lands alone are at risk of catastrophic wildfire or abnormal levels of insect and disease infestations. While Federal land management agencies are working to increase the pace and scale of restoration activities, clearly we need to do more. In California we are facing a severe drought, and even before the onset of this most recent drought there were 150 million dead or dying trees due to insect damage. We are truly facing a monumental challenge. A recent comprehensive analysis by The Nature Conservancy and Bain and Company management consultants found that creating a restoration economy can play an important role in expanding the pace and scale of ecologically based forest restoration.…”