Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for lending your passion and your knowledge to this important debate tonight. And I share your hope, that we raise the level of awareness. We are talking a lot about western forests, but I have to tell you, having an eastern forest, I represent the Fifth District of Pennsylvania; when these large wildfires occur out west, there is a large sucking sound of resources, both personnel and money, being taken out of our eastern forests. These are monies that are used to make our forests healthy. These are monies that are used to do timber marketing, marketing of timber and timber sales so that we can generate revenue to our countries, our school districts. So these monies really are taken away from active management, and active management is the key in helping cut down on the amount of wildfires in our forest. This involves mechanical thinning, hazardous fuel reduction projects and, of course, a sustainable amount of timber harvesting per the forced Allowable Sale Quantity, or ASQ. Now these various activities are essential in order to help ensure that the forest doesn't become an overgrown tinderbox. Areas that aren't properly maintained not only become tinderbox, as a risk of wildfires, but also for invasive species outbreaks. I don't know of anyone in Congress that has more expertise on this than our next speaker. He is a professional forester. He brings tremendous education and experience to Washington.…”