Helen Chenoweth-Hage: “At this time, devastating forest fires like this are burning vast areas in our Nation. Today, my subcommittee is having…”

“At this time, devastating forest fires like this are burning vast areas in our Nation. Today, my subcommittee is having a timely joint hearing on fire management that begin on Federal lands. Last year on this subject, I introduced H.R. 1522, which is a very simple bill designed to reduce fire risks like this in areas like Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the forest meets the town in the wildland urban interface. Many of these forests are simply too dense, too crowded, with too many trees, after 100 years of fire prevention, to be treated by fire alone. My bill calls for thinning of forests to make it easier and safer to allow fires naturally to return without being destructive. On February 9, 1999, at a hearing on my bill, the Clinton-Gore administration testified against this bill. They said that these kinds of treatments of thinning were simply unnecessary. A couple of weeks ago, Secretary Babbitt held a press conference where he announced that we need a new strategy to deal with fire risks in these urban-wildland interfaces, a strategy that calls for a combination of thinning and prescribed fire. What a revelation. We need this now.”