In addition, there are advisory committees to the provincial and 

 regional executive committees and regional and State economic re- 

 vitalization teams called CERT teams, which play a role in this 

 process. 



Option 9 has now been in effect for over two years and the sub- 

 committee would like to know how it is working. Have the new ad- 

 visory and interagency committees enabled the Forest Service and 

 BLM to get on with their work, and provide the promised results? 

 Has it reduced the cost of doing business? What is preventing the 

 Forest Service and BLM from meeting the annual sale level of one 

 billion board feet that was promised? And how many and what 

 kinds of new jobs are being provided by the retraining programs in 

 these three States? 



I hope our witnesses will also tell us how President Clinton's 

 plan has affected forest health and ecosystem conditions in the 

 Northwest, but I am concerned that Secretary Glickman's recent 

 direction restricting the use of salvage sales will hinder the Forest 

 Service's ability to meet the goals of the Clinton plan: balancing 

 the needs of forest ecosystems with the needs of local and regional 

 economies. I hope Secretary Babbitt does not intend to issue simi- 

 lar directions to the BLM. 



Finally, I look forward to learning when we may expect to see 

 this forest plan fully implemented. Even those who criticized the 

 cumbersome management requirements and low planned outputs 

 promised by the plan back in 1994 must now be wishing that even 

 the planned goals could be achieved. 



The Clinton plan was supposed to solve the gridlock by develop- 

 ing and implementing a process to achieve stable outputs for local 

 economies while protecting the environment in the Northern spot- 

 ted owl region. So far, all the evidence that we have seen shows 

 this is failing. I hope the administration and other witnesses will 

 surprise us by describing how things are improving. We do not 

 want a smoke and mirrors analysis. Instead, we would like to learn 

 how the President's promises could be achieved in the future. 



I thank our members for appearing before us today. I understand 

 Mr. Dicks will not be able to be here, and I do not see the other 

 members, Wally Herger and Frank Riggs. I will turn to the able 

 gentleman from New Mexico, the distinguished ambassador, Mr. 

 Richardson. 



STATEMENT OF THE HON. BILL RICHARDSON, A U.S. 

 REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW MEXICO 



Mr. Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I cannot believe my eyes. It is 10:06. Unless you gave a six- 

 minute opening statement, this is the first time the subcommittee 

 has started a minute late. 



Mr. Hansen. If I may explain and apologize and repent, I got 

 caught by a TV camera coming over and they just had to talk to 

 me about the armed services bill, so I apologize to all of you. 



Mr. Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Let me just say that on the President's forest plan, prior to the 

 President stepping up to deal with this issue, there was gridlock 

 in the Pacific Northwest. No trees were being cut. Programs for 

 restoration of the ecosystem were fragmented. I think the Presi- 



