"V 



dent changed all that and got the forest working again in a 

 proactive way. 



I think the administration is to be commended for its commit- 

 ment of personnel and money to address a problem. Some may 

 complain about the pace, but we need only to look at where we 

 were to see how far we have come. The biggest single threat to the 

 success of the President's plan has been the timber salvage rider 

 enacted by this Congress, and as we know, in the Pacific North- 

 west, the salvage rider was not about salvage logging. It was about 

 releasing Section 318 sales to allow the cutting down of healthy 

 green trees, regardless of the environmental consequences. 



Again, Mr. Chairman, the Forest Service, the administration is 

 to be commended for holding the plan together after, regrettably, 

 the plan was undercut by the timber salvage rider. But again, Mr. 

 Chairman, thank you for letting me make this opening statement. 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you. I appreciate the gentleman's comment. 



The gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Cooley, is recognized. 



STATEMENT OF THE HON. WES COOLEY, A U.S. 

 REPRESENTATIVE FROM OREGON 



Mr. Cooley. I appreciate the chairman for having these hear- 

 ings. I think that it needs to be aired on what has exactly hap- 

 pened in the last couple of years. 



I strongly disagree with the minority leader. I do not think that 

 the timber salvage bill was really a 318 bill. I think it was a real, 

 true effort on the part of the Congress and on the part of the ad- 

 ministration, as well — that is the reason they signed on to it — to 

 go ahead and do a win- win- win, clean up the forest, replant, and 

 produce some productive jobs in the Northwest part of the United 

 States in the timber area. 



The 318 rider in that section was merely to relieve a bill that 

 had been passed clear back in 1989 and been held up by litigation 

 from that time up until the timber salvage bill. It is too bad it was 

 painted into that corner and that picture that we were logging 

 "without laws", which was absolutely not true. 



So I think that some of these hearings will clarify and straighten 

 out some of the misconceptions about that particular legislation 

 and I appreciate the chairman's effort on this behalf. Thank you. 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you very much. 



Seeing as we do not have our two members who were going to 

 be here to open this, we will start with our first panel and we will 

 take the members following this panel, if they show up. 



We have Sue Kupillas, Jackson County Commissioner. She was 

 with us in Roseburg. We appreciate her being here. We also have 

 Joan Smith, Dr. Bob Lee, and Mr. Bob Olson. If these four folks 

 would like to come forward, we would appreciate it. We thank you 

 for being here. I point out that we are down to the last few days 

 of this session of Congress. 



As you know, there are a lot of breaks as it is an election year, 

 and so we are going to hold you to five minutes. Is that all right? 

 Right in front of you, there is a red and green and yellow light. It 

 is like when you are running a traffic light — be careful. We will 

 give you each five minutes. 



