Jeff Duncan: “once again, millions of acres out west have burned, causing billions of dollars in damage. We were warned in the…”

“once again, millions of acres out west have burned, causing billions of dollars in damage. We were warned in the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health in early 1998 and early 2000 that this was going to happen; and then a few months later in 2000, 7 million acres burned, causing $10 billion worth of damage. If I went out and burned down one tree in a national forest, I would be arrested; and yet, because of the policies of the past administration and following these extremist environmental groups, these policies have caused millions and millions of acres out west to burn and caused billions of dollars' worth of damage. This year, 20 firefighters have lost their lives because of the fires out there. Also one of my constituents, a young woman firefighter in an accident fighting one of the fires, has been paralyzed from the waist down. Extremist groups, Mr. Speaker, protest any time anyone wants to cut any trees, even though we have many millions more acres in forest land now than 50 or 100 years ago. I will repeat that. We have many millions more acres in forest land now than 50 or 100 or 150 years ago. These groups have driven many small logging companies out of business. Most of these fires have been caused by groups which have stopped even the thinning of forests or the removal of dead and dying trees, resulting in a tremendous buildup of fuel on the floors of our national forests.”