Angie Craig: “I thank Senator Domenici for spelling out so clearly the crisis on the Nation's public lands today. Yesterday, I held a…”

“I thank Senator Domenici for spelling out so clearly the crisis on the Nation's public lands today. Yesterday, I held a hearing and I had two regional foresters: A regional forester that largely is in charge of all the forests in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; the other forester in charge of all the forests along the Sierra Nevada in California. They admitted yesterday that this President's roadless policy is going to jeopardize 21 million acres of forested lands that are now at high risk to catastrophic wildfires, the very thing the Senator is talking about. Yet this President's policy is to lock it up, walk away, and hope it doesn't burn. We are talking, as the Senator so clearly spelled out, about thinning and cleaning--not extensive logging--but clearly changing the environment in a way that fire would not be as destructive as it has been at Los Alamos. I cannot forget the picture on television, the DA Cat rolling along the fire line in the forests of New Mexico, rolling along the dirt, right down through a riparian area. Why? To put out the fire. Now, if the proper action had happened the way the Senator spelled it out, that would never have occurred at Los Alamos, with 21 million acres now at risk of catastrophic wildfires as a result of this President's policy.”