Political Quotes

“I come from the great Northwest, and I am proud of the forests we have. My wife and I love to go out and kayak on the lakes, and we love to hike in the woods. Generally, you have to drive to get there. And when you get there, you want green trees, not black trees. Now, we are not a State that dumps our garbage or our sludge in the ocean. We are a State that is actually pretty proud about how we have managed and restored rivers that were polluted, how we have created greenways and such. I thought I heard the gentleman from Florida talk about how we have commercial logging in Federal parks. That is prohibited by law, and that is not even the subject of this debate. I know a lot of people who think wilderness is the same thing as a park, is the same thing as a national forest. You cannot do anything in a wilderness area but hike in there and out. And in some you have to have a permit to do that. My colleagues, this is not about commercial logging. It is not. Not at all. This is about how we manage the public's land. And, yes, you have every right to have a voice in this, as I do. I just wish you would come out and see what we live in; how these lands are managed. Do my colleagues know that we had enormous fires in Oregon last year and this year; fires that burned so hot they create a tornado effect that does a blow-down of trees? The embers blow 2 to 3 miles in advance.”