13 



million acres in the States of Oregon and Washington, and that 

 represents about 19 percent of the total land base in those two 

 states. And as you have pointed out this morning, the management 

 of the national forests in the Pacific Northwest is undergoing sig- 

 nificant change. It is changing because of us moving to ecosystems 

 management and making adjustments to reflect new scientific in- 

 formation about biological diversity and the health of the forests, 

 and ecosystems management, changing public expectations about 

 how these national forests should be managed, and finally, but not 

 least, dealing with some threatened and endcingered species such 

 as the spotted owl, the salmon and marbled murrelet. 



All of these factors are significantly changing the management of 

 the national forests in the Pacific Northwest. So, as we look to the 

 future and begin to deal with these changes, it is evident that there 

 is a large amoimt of work that needs to be done to restore the for- 

 est ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest so that the national forests 

 represent healthy and productive and biologically diverse 

 ecosystems. And, in addition, there is a large backlog of work relat- 

 ed to the rehabilitation of our recreation facilities and trails, and 

 other jobs that we do on the national forest. 



Let me just throw out a few examples of the kinds of work 

 projects that could be undertaken and could be accelerated: restor- 

 ing and protecting wetlands, restoring riparian areas, improving 

 watershed conditions, restoring fisheries and wildlife habitat, clos- 

 ing roads that we no longer need, cleanup of abandoned mine sites, 

 treating timber stands to increase growth and vigor, improve forest 

 health so that the forest is better able to withstand insect and dis- 

 ease outbreaks and wildfire, and finally, we need to rehabilitate 

 our recreation facilities and trails and improve wilderness manage- 

 ment. 



I think just as one example of the kind of need we have to re- 

 store the forest ecosystem is the Blue Mountains of northeastern 

 Oregon and southeastern Washington, Congressman Smith's dis- 

 trict. There we have about 50 percent of the forests where many 

 of the trees are dying, and the scientists are describing this area 

 as basically out of ecological balance, and that is largely due to the 

 exclusion of fire over time. Over the last 75 years it has changed 

 the composition of species in the forest, the forest is overcrowded 

 and it has just not been able to deal with the tremendous stress 

 that it has faced over the last 6 years due to drought conditions. 



So the past 6 years' drought has stressed the forest to the point 

 that insects, disease and wildfires kills thousands of acres of trees 

 each year, and there is much work to be done here to reverse this 

 trend, and part of our strategy is to restore the health of the Blue 

 Mountain ecosystem, which includes reforestation, timber stand 

 improvement, restoring the fish and wildlife habitat, revegetating 

 riparian areas, thinning the forests and doing more prescribed 

 burning. So that is just one example on four national forests where 

 there is a lot of work that we need to do to restore the ecosystem 

 in the Pacific Northwest. 



So, in summary, Mr. Chairman, there is much work to be done 

 on the national forests in the Pacific Northwest. First, to put these 

 national forests in a healthy, productive and biologically diverse 

 condition. Two, to rehabilitate our recreation facilities and trails 



68-303 0-93-2 



