George Miller: “on this subject of timber salvage, I believe there is a unity of purpose. Those of us from the West and those of us who…”

“on this subject of timber salvage, I believe there is a unity of purpose. Those of us from the West and those of us who represent States where this is a serious issue have met time and again with the Forest Service about having a robust and necessary salvage program. But this rider took us far beyond that purpose. This rider took us far beyond a program that was designed around forest health, because this rider went from forest salvage, to timber health, to logging without laws. This is not about expediting the procedures. This is not about the appeals process. In fact, we heard in the hearing this morning that as timber salvage has gone up to 1.5 billion feet over the last couple years, appeals have been coming down. So it was going in the right direction. But impatience and the ingenuity of the Forest Service working together designed these riders so it would eviscerate all of the environmental laws that you have to deal with in providing for the protections of our forest.”