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new growth comes up — the fuel base continues to build. At some 

 point, it gets to a level that when you get a fire going, there is so 

 much fiiel that the temperatures reach a level where you totally 

 wipe out all life in the soil. 



You create a situation where there is such an inferno that there 

 is no possibility of anything living in that kind of fire. It destroys 

 all natural growth, and the fires become so gigantic that they go 

 over firefighters, and we lose lives. It is a very difficult fire to fight. 



The object then is to remove that fuel base. Now, that was one 

 of the purposes of the salvage legislation — was to go in and try to 

 collect a lot of the salvage timber, bringing it out at a profit to the 

 taxpayer before it created that fire problem. Another way would be 

 as it is building up to have a low burn that would keep the base 

 clear before it builds to such a level that you could not have a burn 

 without destroying the whole forest. 



There are other silviculture reasons for burning. Sometimes you 

 are destroying competitive vegetation. Sometimes if you are getting 

 ready to plant, it is a way to prepare the ground before you plant. 

 But I would suspect what the reason that the controlled burning 

 is going on now is for fire protection. 



Mrs. CUBIN. I am familiar with the huge infernos that you are 

 talking about, having lived through the Yellowstone Fires, and that 

 was certainly a tragedy in my mind. But the reason I asked the 

 question in the first place is because the forest managers have to 

 weigh how much can be harvested against the health of the forest. 

 And to me it is like grazing. You have to graze the land in order 

 to keep the rangeland healthy, and you need to allow timbering in 

 the forest in order to keep it at its maximum health. 



ISTEA — in my State, I see private land with forests that are not 

 in danger of fire, that are managed well and maintained well. Then 

 there is a line and then here is some Forest Service forest where 

 it looks like a fire has just, you know — the forest is ripe for a fire. 

 And I just wonder if it is a political thing that we can't harvest or 

 a management thing that we can't harvest. 1 don't know. 



Mr. Taylor. Well, it is a political decision. In 1799, when George 

 Washington was dying of pneumonia, we bled him. It did not help 

 his pneumonia at all I am sure, but it was the state of our medical 

 knowledge. Today, we can transplant hearts and vital body parts 

 that it is miraculous we have made that kind of advancement in 

 less than 200 years. 



We have made similar advancements in silviculture from the 

 days when it was sort of a slash and cut and burn, starting at the 

 turn of the century with the creation of the national forests with 

 people's understanding of skilled silviculture. The first school of 

 forestry is in my district. 



We have learned how to do an amazing amount of things in 

 silviculture. We have watched that kind of educational increase. 

 When the public looks, it is easy to demagogue forest practices. 

 Whenever you have a cutting in a forest, it looks bad for the first 

 couple of years. And so you drive by — even if it is a thinning — it 

 doesn't have to be a clear-cutting, it can be a thinning — it doesn't 

 look good. And so it is easy for me to say that is evil, that is bad. 

 And yet it is absolutely essential for forest health. 



