As you can see, pictures truly paint a thousand words. The Lick 

 Creek site burned in 1994 in a fire that covered over 27,000 acres. 

 The Lone Pine Ridge site was part of a blow-down 17 miles long 

 and seven miles wide. Both sites are now eminently susceptible to 

 insect infestations, disease, and wildfire. The local Forest Service 

 believes both are in immediate need of emergency salvage harvest- 

 ing under the salvage law to protect our habitat, begin forest refor- 

 estation, and to provide several million board feet of timber for 

 local mills. 



Tragically, however, the Clinton administration has forbidden it 

 under a recent directive from the administration restricting imple- 

 mentation of our Congressionally passed timber salvage law. Mr. 

 Chairman and Members, these scenes can be repeated over and 

 over again in the Option 9 forests of Northern California. Washing- 

 ton, D.C., policies which mandate doing nothing are literally de- 

 stroying the health of our forests. Tragedies like Lick Creek and 

 Lone Pine Ridge are the direct consequences of Washington, D.C., 

 dictating local policy under the salvage law. 



But even without the salvage law, the Clinton forest plan would 

 still prevent local managers from treating these sites. To better ex- 

 plain what I mean, I would like to show the Subcommittee a chart 

 that illustrates the process the Clinton plan requires local man- 

 agers to follow in order to treat areas like Lick Creek and Lone 

 Pine Ridge. By way of explanation, the yellow and red portions rep- 

 resent the additional process required under Option 9 that is not 

 otherwise required under current law. 



If you find this process unusually complicated or long, you are 

 not alone. So do our local forest managers. I am told by the people 

 on the ground that it is not unusual to take the full three years 

 shown on the chart to treat sites like Lick Creek and Lone Pine 

 Ridge. This is without litigation. 



Unfortunately, the Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine trees in Lick 

 Creek will be badly, if almost completely, deteriorated within three 

 years. The white fir trees at Lone Pine Ridge will be worthless 

 within 18 months. When and if these sales do go to bid, nobody will 

 bid on them because they will be practically worthless. As a con- 

 sequence, nothing will be accomplished on either site. Lick Creek 

 and Lone Pine Ridge will be a total loss to the forest, to local com- 

 munities, and to the American taxpayer. 



With impossible situations like these, it is little wonder that the 

 Clinton plan has yielded in 1994 and 1995 combined only one-quar- 

 ter 



Mr. Hansen. Mr. Herger, maybe the folks in the audience would 

 like to see it. If you would walk up the side of the dias here, I think 

 everyone could see that. But if you are not interested in that, we 

 understand. Gro ahead. 



Mr. Herger. With these impossible situations, it is little wonder 

 that the Clinton plan has yielded in 1994 and 1995 combined only 

 one-quarter of the two billion board feet that Secretary Babbitt in 

 a July of 1993 press conference promised the administration would 

 harvest in 1994 alone. President Clinton's statement was true. As 

 we lose places like Lick Creek and Lone Pine Ridge, our local 

 economies in Northern California are sure to follow. 



