35 



Mr. Vento. Mr. DeFazio, I cut off your questioning. 



Mr. DeFazio. No, no; that is fine. 



Mr. Vento. Okay. Mr. LaRocco. 



Mr. LaRocco. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



One thing I would like to do is put in a plug for my legislation 

 on forest health. We have the Forest Service and the BLM here. 

 One of the components of my bill says that the Secretaries of Agri- 

 culture and Interior can declare a forest health emergency and go 

 right into areas where we know that there is a problem, and one 

 of the things that is impressive about your testimony here. Chief, 

 is that in all of your concerns about forest health you don't just say 

 this is one prescription, it is salvage sale, we have gone beyond 

 that, and I think that is important. 



I have a couple of specific questions I want to ask. One of the 

 discussions we had here with my colleague from Oregon was on the 

 appeals process for salvage sales. You did not discuss how it is 

 working with the Executive Order of the President, where we 

 raised, I believe, the regional forester's ability to have a salvage 

 sale from 100,000 to 1,000,000 board feet. Is that not true? And 

 how is that working? Are you putting more salvage sale up under 

 that Executive Order, and is that still in effect? 



Mr. Robertson. Yes. We have delegated to the regional forester 

 to make that decision, find he or she has the authority to either ex- 

 empt the timber sale or not under a salvage operation, and most 

 of the regional foresters are using that. 



Mr. LaRocco. They are using that authority? 



Mr. Robertson. Yes, sir, especially where time is of essence. I 

 mean if there is time then they are not exempting, but if time is 

 of essence they are using it. 



Mr. LaRocco. One of the things that I need clarification on is 

 ecosystem management. We all talk about ecosystem management. 

 We talk about biodiversity, and you actually say in your testimony 

 here that the Pacific Northwest Region is implementing ecosystem 

 management to ensure it. Is this a policy now from the Forest 

 Service that has come down to the field? Is it implemented? Is it 

 in black and white? Is it in writing? Or is it an experimentation? 



Anecdotally, I had somebody in my office yesterday who said, "I 

 hope you are putting in the requirement that the Forest Service 

 implement ecosystem management in the forest," and I said, "I 

 would if I knew what it was," because I still think that we are in 

 the developmental stage here, but now I see it is on the ground. 



Help me out on how this goes from what you are saying here to 

 the forest plans, say, in the Nez Perce, Clearwater, Boise, Payette, 

 or wherever. 



Mr. Robertson. Okay. First, yes, it is policy. We will follow an 

 ecological approach to the multiple-use management of a national 

 forest, and it is an important, I say, ecosystems approach to the 

 multiple-use management. Ecosystems is a means to our end, 

 which is multiple use management. 



What that means is, we are going to manage the forest — "sus- 

 tainability^ is a key word here — sustainability of all uses and val- 

 ues of the forest, and we will manage these forests for healthy, pro- 

 ductive, biologically diverse ecosystems over time. 



