Pete Domenici: “for a couple of weeks, every time Americans look at their TV screen, they see a huge fire, a piece of America burning.…”

“for a couple of weeks, every time Americans look at their TV screen, they see a huge fire, a piece of America burning. Forests in our Southwest and West are on fire. We have seen huge fires in the State of Arizona, small but significant fires in New Mexico, and very large fires in the State of Colorado. I do not want to discuss the why of the fires today, but I am very hopeful that another year will not pass in the Congress, at least the Senate, without a thorough analysis and research by a committee of Congress on why our forests are burning. Some say it is natural. Others say it is a terrible management mistake. They claim that we have gone along without pruning, thinning, or taking care of forests and are inviting either manmade fires, lightning, or some kind of natural fire starter. We have a very serious problem with reference to our national forests and these fires. So far this year, over 3 million acres have burned, and the fire season is not yet over. This is 1 million acres more than the devastating 2000 fire season and twice the 10-year average. So far, twice the 10-year fire average has already occurred in our forests! This fire season has had a detrimental impact on communities throughout the West and Southwest, disrupting thousands of people's lives, hurting the economies in ways we cannot measure, and destroying homes and property.”