201 



Mr. Herger. The first is a picture of the valley in 1866. As you 

 look at this photo, notice how open the forest canopy is. You will 

 also notice a slight haze in the photo. This is not due to the camera 

 used to take this photo; rather, it was due to a forest fire, one of 

 many that frequently burned throughout the region each year dur- 

 ing the last century. 



Many of these fires were purposefully set by Native Americans 

 who use fire to keep forest canopies open for game and useful 

 plans? 



The second photo of Yosemite was taken in 1961. In this photo 

 you will see how much denser the forest has become. This is typical 

 of many regions throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Forests 

 that once had open canopies are now choked with dense dens of 

 trees. 



Seven out of 10 years of drought in the region have caused many 

 of these overdense dens to experience epidemic tree mortality due 

 to lack of water, disease, and insects. 



This next photograph that I will give to the committee is an ex- 

 ample of the impact of overdensity and drought on a timber stand. 

 This timber stand is located in the Alaskan National Forest. 



As you can see from this photo, well over half of the trees have 

 died in some areas of the Sierra Nevada. Tree mortality exceeds 60 

 and 70 percent because the epidemic buildup of dead and dying 

 trees causes fires in timber stands which consume everything, even 

 the soil. Such fires bring forest health to its lowest ebb. 



Mr. Chairman, even to the lay observer, it is apparent that ac- 

 tive management is necessary in order to improve what former 

 Congressman Leon Panetta, who authored the legislation that au- 

 thorized the SNEP report, called, quote, "extreme health problems 

 associated with the Sierra Nevada forest," closed quote. 



The purpose of this SNEP study is to provide information on how 

 to proceed with this management based on the best available 

 science. Some individuals and groups advocate that to protect Si- 

 erra Nevada forest we need large, old grove reserves like those es- 

 tablished under President Clinton's plan. 



However, nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the 

 SNEP steering committee in its 1994 progress report to the Con- 

 gress recognized that such a hands-off approach would not likely 

 succeed in the Sierra Nevada forest and that, quote, "efforts to re- 

 duce catastrophic fire risk, succession of forest stands and to main- 

 tain key ecosystem processes and bio-diversity are much more like- 

 ly to require active management," end of quote. 



Common sense agrees with this assessment. The California spot- 

 ted owl team has concluded that reduction of fire risk in the Sierra 

 Nevada is crucial to protect the California spotted owl and other 

 species. Accordingly, the CASPO team has recommended proactive 

 management activities that reduce the risk of fire as an appro- 

 priate method of protecting owl and other wildlife habitat. 



Mr. Chairman, science continues to show that active forest man- 

 agement to reduce fire risk is vital to the health of our Sierra Ne- 

 vada forest. The Congress should expect that the final SNEP report 

 would provide a full range of hands-on active management strate- 

 gies to address the fire threat in California and thereby protect and 

 preserve our forests and forest communities for future generations. 



