Barbara Cubin: “Mr. Chairman, I find the Smith amendment to be very good for one of our most precious natural resources; that is, our…”

“Mr. Chairman, I find the Smith amendment to be very good for one of our most precious natural resources; that is, our forests and our ability to use them. And I find the Boehlert amendment to be radical and extreme. The Boehlert amendment locks up one-third of the forests in this country. So if a road washes out, a temporary road in a forest washes out, or if there is a blowdown and a road is blocked, his amendment could even be construed that those could not be repaired. And do my colleagues know what that does? It does a lot of things, but one of the main things is that it violates the Americans With Disabilities Act. If we cannot have roads in forests, not only can we not harvest the timber and not realize the value that that has in preserving the health of the forest and bringing revenues to the communities, but we cannot have recreation in the forests either. We cannot go sightseeing, we cannot go picnicking, fishing, hunting or camping unless we want to parachute in, unless we want to walk, unless we want to ride a mule. And having just gone through some very serious surgery which limited my ability to be able to walk around, to be able to ride a horse or a mule, I cannot do that anymore, and there are millions of Americans who cannot do that either.”