But we didn't do that. We bumbled into the middle of it, came up with this jerry-rigged system, and it hasn't worked.

The Forest Service once generated funds for the Federal Treasury through the sale of excess timber.

The ball is in the Forest Service's court--Congress has provided budget authority and management options.

I cannot thank her enough for that conspicuous commitment and for her no-nonsense approach to our forest issues.

Active forest management produces healthy forests, with the byproduct of revenues generated for the Treasury.

I have stated many times before that we are simply loving our trees to death.

Where did we go wrong and how do we get back to those days?

Our objectives are to restore public access to the public lands, restore good management to the public lands, and to restore the Federal Government as a good neighbor to those communities impacted by the public lands.

I have been looking forward to this hearing, because it cuts to the core of the issues confronting our forests and the U.S. Forest Service under its new Interim Chief, Vicki Christiansen.

The sooner these steps are taken and the more aggressively they are implemented, the quicker we will turn the tide on the self-induced environmental malfeasance.

Do they have full access to the benefit of these programs that they are paying for? The answer was no.

I would like to thank our witnesses for appearing before the Subcommittee today. I look forward to hearing their testimony.