Angie Craig: “Certainly, the issue of national parks, in which the Senator from Wyoming is so knowledgeable, is not just a Western…”

“Certainly, the issue of national parks, in which the Senator from Wyoming is so knowledgeable, is not just a Western issue; it is clearly a national issue, with national parks spanning the length and breath of our country. I come to visit about an issue that has been in the skies of the West all summer. It doesn't happen to be there at this moment. As I flew out of Idaho this weekend after a rainstorm, the sky was clear. But for well over 2 months this summer, up until this weekend, Western skies have not been clear. They have been filled with smoke. If you had flown over Idaho or nearly any part of the West as I have many times this summer, you would have been convinced that the West truly was on fire. In many instances, that was true. Our Western forests and rangelands have burned again at an unprecedented rate this summer. Smoke from extensive wildfires invaded our cities. It damaged tourism, it caused health problems, and homes adjacent to the public lands were in jeopardy and many burned as a result of the high incident of wildfires.”