66 



ued timber on the east side, the salvage we are talking about is 

 from the east side, and that is a function of, as I said, the factors 

 that impact its quality and 



Mr. Vento. What often happens, Mr. Secretary, that, in fact, 

 when putting a salvage proposal together, besides trying to be eco- 

 nomic, you are trying to do something called forest health, is that 

 right? 



Mr. Lyons. Correct. 



Mr. Vento. I note that my colleague, of course, went on to point 

 out, and it looks like to me that there is a pretty good definition 

 in this that the Secretary is, in fact, pointing out that the salvage 

 definition in the law that was passed was very broad and vague, 

 in his words, in the words of the Secretary, the memorandum of 

 the Secretary of July 2. That is what the Secretary says. Then he 

 goes on to talk about trees eminently susceptible to insect attack, 

 and then he goes on to talk about eminently susceptible to fire, but 

 in that definition, he also deals not just with fire but he deals with 

 personal property and life. 



Mr. Lyons. What we have tried to do, Mr. Vento, is place a high 

 priority on those sales that are in what we call the urban interface 

 zone, so we are 



Mr. Vento. I certainly understand that, Mr. Secretary. I just 

 want it on the record. I mean, the point here is that when the For- 

 est Service is dealing with these issues, they are not just dealing 

 with these in the abstract in terms of volume but they are dealing 

 with a number of other goals that are trying to be achieved, like 

 preventing personal property from being damaged, is that correct? 



Mr. Lyons. That is correct. 



Mr. Vento. The law does not specify that. This rider, at least, 

 does not specify that. It seems to me that the Secretary in point 

 four is also trying to avoid unnecessary duplication when he says, 

 any part of a sale and preparation that was identified to the public 

 through a scoping notice, environmental assessment, decision, or 

 other manner prior to subsequent enactment of this law should, in 

 fact, go forward. In other words, was there duplication going on? 



Mr. Lyons. Actually, I think that was intended to address an- 

 other concern, Mr. Vento, and 



Mr. Vento. Maybe I misunderstood it. 



Mr. Lyons. We wanted to be sure that in offering salvage sales, 

 that sales did not proceed and were not offered under the emer- 

 gency salvage program that had either been offered previously and 

 withdrawn or had been offered previously as a green sale and then 

 after the passage of the salvage rider were subsequently offered as 

 a salvage sale under the emergency provisions. I think that is a 

 rare event, but we wanted to be abundantly clear. 



Mr. Vento. No. I thought points four and five — in fact, point five, 

 I think, addressed that, so I think that there is, though, it seemed 

 to me, in reading that, that this was actually intended to, in fact, 

 not require duplication, and that point five actually addressed the 

 answer that you have just given me. 



One of the suggestions here is that there is a direct relation — 

 we have heard this allegation over and over and I want the Forest 

 Chief or yourself, Mr. Secretary, to respond to it — and that is that 



