John Chenoweth: “I just want to make it perfectly clear and back up what the gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young] said, that this issue has…”

“I just want to make it perfectly clear and back up what the gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young] said, that this issue has far less to do with the forest health and jobs. What the debate from the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] was about was about control by a select environmental group here in Washington, DC, who do not understand silvicultural management, who do not really understand the dynamics of good forest management. H.R. 858 is not at all like the salvage rider. I worked on that salvage rider, and I supported it. But this is not at all like the salvage rider that the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] claimed that it was. This pilot project, and let me reemphasize, it is a pilot project, is designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire and to prevent the need for salvage riders in the future because we will be taking care of the salvage in this particular area. The legislation does not provide for clear-cuts. It is just the opposite. What it does call for is thinning of the forest and providing for shaded fuel breaks, in which the small trees are cut and the large trees are left to grow. That not only provides for healthy forests but healthy habitat and browse for wildlife.”