Angie Craig: “we are attempting to make a very important policy determination on the management of our public lands. Many of us have…”

“we are attempting to make a very important policy determination on the management of our public lands. Many of us have been on the floor over the last good number of years to talk with some concern about the changing character of our public lands and the impending crisis that might occur under the normal climate cycles across the United States as a result of catastrophic wildfires on our forested public lands. Tragically enough, many of the alarms we were talking about were based on studies done over several decades, that inactive management of our public lands, in the absence of fire, was allowing a fuel buildup that ultimately could result in catastrophic wildfires. We are now at that point where it has become obvious to the American public, from watching television this summer, and seeing the fires that have raged across the western forests, that something is wrong out there; that this was not a normal environment; that this was something they were not used to; Why were these beautiful forests now burning?”