27 



ice does an outstanding job of fighting them once they've started, 

 but it would seem to me it would be much better to direct our ef- 

 forts on trying to prevent these fires before they begin, than just 

 taking all our time and spending all our money, as we did in 1994 

 where we spent almost a billion dollars fighting these fires. 



I would like to ask you, are you familiar with this blow-down 

 area that is pictured here in the Six Rivers? 



Chief Thomas. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Herger. It's a 30,000 acre area, 37 miles long and 7 miles 

 wide. 



Chief Thomas. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Herger. Mr. Lyons, are you familiar with this blow-down 

 area? 



Under Secretary LYONS. Very much so, Mr. Herger. 



Mr. Herger. Are you aware that your Supervisor there has been 

 requesting, and that under our salvage law your Forest Supervisor, 

 the experts within the Forest Service on the ground, would have 

 been able to have removed all these downed trees, which is a fire 

 waiting to happen, a catastrophe waiting to happen, that under our 

 salvage law we could have removed that, but yet because of the di- 

 rective that you and Secretary Glickman made earlier that they are 

 now unable to remove that. Are you aware of that? 



Under Secretary Lyons. I'm aware that this particular sale or 

 complex of sales was delayed and is being reviewed in the context 

 of the Secretary's directive on the salvage rider, that's correct. 



Mr. Herger. Right. Now you had a wonderful presentation dur- 

 ing which I agreed with virtually everything you were saying. The 

 only problem is we don't see any of that taking place out in our 

 area. You mentioned how you wanted to expedite and you recog- 

 nized the problem, but yet here is an example of where the Admin- 

 istration is not working to prevent fires like this, but it would ap- 

 pear that you're doing everything you can to stop us from doing so. 



Are you also familiar that the Forest Supervisor did request of 

 Secretary Glickman and of the Administration to be able to move 

 ahead with this despite your hearing and still there has not been 

 a decision as of yesterday on the Six Rivers? Just how long were 

 you planning on waiting until you came up with a decision? 



Under Secretary LYONS. That's actually under review now, Mr. 

 Herger. Those sales that were impacted by the directive and that 

 the Supervisors and subsequently regional foresters felt warranted 

 an exemption from the directive are currently being considered. 



Mr. Herger. Are you familiar that there is a timeframe that 

 they have to move within, and if you're successful in delaying this 

 long enough and reviewing it long enough that even if you at some- 

 time, and we may have reached that point now, that even if you 

 say "yes", that because of the nature of the trees that are involved 

 here that it will not be feasible to salvage this? 



Under Secretary Lyons. I don't think that's the case with these 

 sales, Mr. Herger. 



Mr. Herger. Well let me just read from your Forest Supervisor 

 and quote her. "The damage that the forests received this past win- 

 ter has created an extremely high risk of catastrophic fire with re- 

 sultant effects to fisheries, wildlife and the wilderness values, in 

 our ability to meet our trust responsibility to Native Americans 



