On the recordJuly 9, 2015
I want to thank the chairmen--Mr. Conaway, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Bishop--for their leadership on this issue. I stand here today in support of creating more jobs and improving the health of our Nation's forests through sustainable forest management. H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015, is a bipartisan bill that will address the growing economic and environmental threats to the catastrophic wildfires. This piece of legislation is hugely important for my district and the entire southeastern region of the United States. Florida is home to a multitude of national forests, including the Apalachicola, Osceola, and Ocala, which span more than 1.2 million acres in north central Florida. These forests supply over 10,000 acres per year for timber production, creating jobs, lumber products, pellet mills for green energy, and paper products. This land also allows for recreational activities like equestrian and motorcycle trails and hunting and fishing. In addition, they produce roughly 600 billion gallons of fresh water, and that is all in my home State. Due to a lack of proper forest management, the risk of catastrophic wildfires has increased dramatically. These emergencies draw critical funding away from the Bureau of Land Management accounts intended to prevent wildfires, thus creating a chronic problem that is only getting worse.…
