In 1994, the same year as the fire that burned Lick Creek, the 

 local mill in Happy Camp, only a stone's throw from Lick Creek, 

 closed permanently for lack of timber. Last May, the local mill in 

 Haj^ork, just to the northeast of Lone Pine Ridge, also closed per- 

 manently for lack of timber. Hayfork is the thirtieth mill in my dis- 

 trict to close in recent years. The tragic irony of Hayfork is that 

 the surrounding forests contain enough dead and dying timber to 

 have kept this mill operating for another 15 years. 



Mr. Chairman, it should come as no surprise that Trinity Coun- 

 ty, where Hayfork is located, has unemployment rates consistently 

 ranging from 15 to 24 percent. It should come as no surprise that 

 80 percent of the children in Happy Camp Elementary School re- 

 ceive free or reduced meals. President Clinton predicted it would 

 happen. His forest plan and forest management directives issued 

 from Washington are making it happen. 



Mr. Chairman, to close, I would like to submit for the record a 

 letter to President Clinton I received recently from Nadine Bailey, 

 a former constituent of mine. Nadine tells the tragic story of a 

 promise President Clinton made to her daughter, Elizabeth, in 

 1993 and the events that have transpired since. Time will not allow 

 me to read the letter, so I encourage every member of the Sub- 

 committee to do so. Nadine and Elizabeth used to live in Ha3^ork 

 while the mill was still operating. Their story puts a profoundly 

 human face on what I have been talking about. 



[The letter may be found at end of hearing.] 



Mr. Herger. Mr. Chairman, again, I thank you for holding this 

 hearing. The people of Northern California deserve some answers. 

 The towns of Happy Camp and Ha5^ork deserve some answers. Na- 

 dine and Elizabeth Bailey deserve some answers. Hopefully, we 

 will be able to provide a few today. Thank you. 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you for your excellent testimony. 



Mr. Riggs? 



STATEMENT OF THE HON. FRANK RIGGS, A U.S. 

 REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA 



Mr. RiGGS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and other members of the 

 Subcommittee. 



I am sure I speak for my good friend and colleague and neighbor, 

 Mr. Herger, when I say that we both very much appreciate the op- 

 portunity to testify today before the Subcommittee and to sit with 

 the Subcommittee for a short period of time. 



I probably could sum up my testimony simply by saying that I 

 ditto everjrthing Mr. Herger just said, but at the risk of echoing 

 some of the crucial points that he made, let me just say that this 

 series of oversight hearings is of critical importance to my Congres- 

 sional district. We are very interested in evaluating the short and 

 long-term consequences of this administration's current forest man- 

 agement practices, and for that matter, their whole public land 

 strategy for the Western United States. Without question, the 

 President's policy in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California 

 is in need of in-depth examination, and in my view, drastic reform. 



The imposition of the Northwest Forest Plan, or Option 9, saw 

 the single most radical shift in management policies of our nation's 

 forests since the creation of the Forest Service in 1897. In the past 



