Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleagues from Pennsylvania and Utah and their committee work on this. Management reduces catastrophic wildfire. In the high desert rangelands of Nevada, as well as the conifer forests of such mountain ranges as the Sierra Nevadas around Lake Tahoe, the Ruby Mountains around Elko, or the Toiyabes around Austin, Nevada, we have a 100-year resource there. Once it burns, it is 100 years before it comes back by the time you take into account those moisture regimens and everything affiliated with that. And then when you have years-long processes after it burns to get permission just to go after that, this is great legislation. I want to thank my colleague from the Razorback State for his work on it and the other folks that have helped him. One of the reasons that this is so important to our State is, in the last 20 years, just on BLM land, we have burned between 6 and 7 million acres. And guess what. We are dealing with a thing called the sage- grouse listing, where they talk about loss and fragmentation of habitat. It is nobody's fault, mostly lightning-caused fires 40 miles from the end of the nearest dirt road--6 or 7 million acres to catastrophic wildland fire. More management, more restoration, thinning of fuels, and also the ability to recognize that the funding for this is something that needs to be a FEMA-related thing rather than just through the normal budget process are all great ideas. I want to thank my colleagues for their help.…”