WALLY HERGER: “I rise in strong support to the Furse amendment. Mr. Chairman, let me remind my colleagues that currently over 21…”

“I rise in strong support to the Furse amendment. Mr. Chairman, let me remind my colleagues that currently over 21 billion board feet of dead and dying timber litter our national forests--enough to build 2 million homes. In some areas 70 to 80 percent of the forests are dead or dying. These deplorable conditions exploded in 1994, as wildfires destroyed 4 million acres of national forest throughout the country including over a half million acres in my own State of California. Common sense demanded enactment of the salvage law to stop this massive destruction of our forests. The salvage law was an emergency, short-term measure intended to jump-start efforts to restore long-term forest health by expediting the removal of dead and dying trees from our forests. It is the extreme environmentalists, led by the Sierra Club--the richest environmental litigation machine in the world--who are leading the charge to repeal this law and ultimately stop all timber harvests on Federal land--even the harvesting of dead trees. Mr. Chairman, it is not responsible forest management to let millions of acres of forest rot and die on the stump. I urge my colleagues to act responsibly, to reject the extremism that would rather see a forest burn to the ground than manage it wisely, and help preserve our forests as a healthy, natural legacy for generations to come. Vote ``no'' on the Furse amendment.”