30 



thing about forest health or the rest of the timber. If you want a 

 good example, you well know, you just go to the east side where 

 half the timber is dead, as Chief Robertson has already indicated, 

 and more dying all the time. 



So there is a good deal of salvage available, and there is a lot 

 of disease — is that correct? — tmd we have got to take care of it. 



Mr. Shepard. We have a real problem down there in our Med- 

 ford District. Your number is correct. I think we have somewhere 

 in excess of 100 million feet that has been killed or damaged by 

 insects. 



We did go back to the judge on a fire salvage situation, and she 

 did release us, and we last week sold I think it was 8.75 million 

 feet of salvage material. But as our plans are completed, and hope- 

 fully the corSerence is successful, we will be able to go back to the 

 judge with something this summer. 



Mr. Smith. Thank you. 



Mr. Vento. Mr. DeFazio. 



Mr. DeFazio. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I have a more global concern, and then I will get to more specif- 

 ics. And the chief is familiar with the question; I have put this 

 question to him before in budget hearings — I have listened to this 

 without any background or knowledge. 



I think that we are doing everything you thought it was prudent 

 to do or your agency was capable of doing in order to improve the 

 productivity of these lands, given the problem, and we are not ex- 

 actly certain on what portion of these lands we are going to be 

 managing for commodity values versus other values. 



In any case, it sounds like you are saying we have got all that 

 we need, and I guess I would question that, and I just want to re- 

 state the question in the hope that, given a new administration, we 

 don't have the same kind of bullet-heads down at 0MB who are 

 making you come up here and lie to us about your needs, which 

 went on over the last decade. 



So, do you have all the money you need in these accounts to do 

 all the activities that you think are prudent to increase the produc- 

 tivity of these lands? 



Mr. Robertson. Congressman DeFazio, we 



Mr. DeFazio. And this is a question absent the restraints or con- 

 straints from 0MB or other people putting pressure on your budg- 

 ets. If you could propose a budget, would you propose what you are 

 going to get? 



Mr. Robertson. On reforestation, we are okay, we have got suffi- 

 cient funding. We do have a backlog of timber stand improvement 

 work we could do, and there are about 429,000 acres of timber 

 stand improvement work that we could do. We normally do about 

 140,000 acres a year. So that is over 3 years of work that we could 

 do on timber stand improvement, primarily pre-commercial 

 thinning. 



Mr. DeFazio. Okay. And do you have a total cost on that? 



Mr. Robertson. If we did all of that, it would be about $68 mil- 

 lion. 



Mr. DeFazio. Sixty-eight million dollars. Okay. 



Mr. Robertson. Now the other thing is, again, pre-commercial 

 thinning is a big part of that, and there is more coming on line 



