24 



ship and not partisanship. I know that you agree, and I look for- 

 ward to working with you to improve our ability to prevent cata- 

 strophic wildfires in the future. 



Thank you very much. 



Chairman Hansen. The gentlelady from Idaho. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Lyons, have you been to my State this 

 year, specially this summer, to review the fires in Idaho? 



Under Secretary LYONS. No, I haven't personally, Congress- 

 woman. In fact, Dr. Thomas, was. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Dr. Thomas, you may want to answer this. 

 Mr. Lyons, the Under Secretary has just asked that I remain pa- 

 tient as we smell the smoke. I mean this certainly doesn't meet the 

 standards of the Clean Air Act, and we're living under a pale of 

 unhealthy situations in our air, plus we're losing the resource. I 

 categorize the situation that we're living with in Idaho as a crisis 

 when we're seeing the increase of acres that are lost to forest fires. 



How would you categorize that situation? 



Chief Thomas. I've been to Idaho I think three times this sum- 

 mer, one before the fires, one when they were starting, and then 

 of course I was there last week. The times runs together when 

 you're having fun, 21 days straight, and keep in mind that we've 

 had some crews on for four 21 straight-day tours. 



I would categorize it as a situation that has evolved over a very 

 long period and it's in a very dangerous situation as far as wildfire 

 is concerned, particularly of extensive wildfire that burns very hot. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Thomas or Mr. Lyons, back on February 

 10th of 1995 at a hearing in this Committee, Mr. Thomas, you did 

 testify that you, Mr. Lyons, are committed, and this is in quotes 

 "committed to develop a strategy to expedite preparation of salvage 

 sales and other attacks on forest health problems." Yet, after my 

 repeated requests to you, Mr. Lyons, and Secretary Glickman to 

 utilize the salvage law Mr. Glickman finally said no, that he was 

 putting it on hold. 



It appears to me that you and the Administration are saying one 

 thing and doing another, and I also find that the case in pre-fire 

 suppression funding. You mentioned that you wanted a whole fleet 

 of tankers to fight these fires. I just suggest we solve the problem 

 and have more pre-fire suppression. As our funding in 1996 re- 

 flects, the President requested $139,785,000. Do you think that's 

 sufficient? 



Under Secretary Lyons. Well I think we could use a lot more 

 money, Congresswoman. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Well that's what the Congress gave you to 

 fight fire before it occurred. We gave you $270,815,000 for pre-fire 

 suppression funding. 



Let me ask you on these tankers, the fire tankers, I assume 

 you're talking about the C-130 tankers. 



Under Secretary LYONS. Excuse me, I'm sorry. Could you repeat 

 that. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. I assume that the fleet of tankers that you 

 want are the C-130's. 



Under Secretary LYONS. Well we'll take whatever we can get ac- 

 tually. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Well do the C-130's work for you? 



