12 



straggly, stinky mess with acrid smell all the way through it for 

 years and years. 



Anyway, with that said I feel better, and since I have the mike 

 and control this meeting I can pretty well do what I damn well 

 please. Therefore, I will excuse the two of you. Don't go away 

 though. We would like you to stay here and listen to the last part 

 of this hearing. 



Before we turn to Secretary Lyons, we have been joined by one 

 of the most enthusiastic and hard working Members of Congress 

 we have regarding forest health who has become a real expert all 

 by himself and a man we turn to for a lot of good information, the 

 gentleman from California, Mr. Wally Herger. 



Wally, we will recognize you if you want to stay right where you 

 are for your opening comments, and then we'll turn to Mr. Lyons. 



STATEMENT OF THE HON. WALLY HERGER, A U.S. 

 REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA 



Mr. Herger. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for inviting 

 me to address your hearing this afternoon. As always I appreciate 

 the hard work your Subcommittee puts into the issue of forest 

 management, particularly during this historic fire season. 



Mr. Chairman, I appear before the Committee today to protest 

 the Clinton Administration's mistreatment of our forests, scientists 

 and professionals within the U.S. Forest Service and the public in 

 California. 



California forests are hovering on the verge of environmental ca- 

 tastrophe. Aggressive fire prevention and downward spiraling tim- 

 ber harvests have made our forests unnaturally dense, at least 82 

 percent denser today than they were in 1928. Overdense timber 

 stands are dying in epidemic proportions from the effects of dis- 

 ease, insect infestations in 7 out of 10 years of drought. In some 

 areas 70 percent or more of the forest is dead or dying. 



These deplorable conditions have turned our forests into time 

 bombs. With our two most severe months remaining in the cata- 

 strophic fire season of 1996 fire storms have already consumed over 

 580,000 acres in California, eclipsing the 525,000 acre total of the 

 historic 1994 fire season. Uncontrollable wildfires have whipped 

 through Yosemite National Park, threatened the giant redwoods of 

 Sequoia National Park and have incinerated tens of thousands of 

 acres of old growth, key watersheds and critical wildlife habitat in 

 the Mendocino National Forest. 



Disasters of this magnitude demand immediate action. Yet, in- 

 stead of declaring an emergency in our forests, the Clinton Admin- 

 istration has declared war on them. Yielding to the heavy handed 

 election year politics of a billion dollar national environmental 

 lobby, the Clinton Administration has preempted the decisionmak- 

 ing of local experts, obstructed scientific and public processes and 

 prohibited forest management activities that would reduce the risk 

 of catastrophic wildfire in the State. In short, you could sum up the 

 Clinton Administration election year policy for California forests as 

 "suppress the science, gag the public and let the forests burn." 



Last summer Congress gave the Administration a short-term 

 emergency timber salvage law as a tool to treat the massive back- 

 log of dead and dying trees in our forests and thereby reduce the 



