Posted on 09/27/2002 7:02:58 AM PDT by madfly
Speech before U.S. Senate by Senator Jon Kyl, R-Az, Sept. 17 2002Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I would like to speak directly to the issues raised both by the majority leader and the Senator from Montana; specifically, with respect to how we are going to resolve issues related to the health of our forests.
I know the discussion has greatly focused on fires and the catastrophic results of fires this year. I am going to talk about that to a great extent. But I would like to make a point at the very beginning which I hope we don't lose sight of; that is, fire is merely one component of the problem we have to deal with. What we are really talking about is the health of our forests, both for the protection of people from catastrophic wildfires and also for the ecological benefits that a healthy forest provides. It provides wonderful recreation for our citizens. It provides habitat for all of the flora and fauna we not only like to visit and like to see but to understand that it is very important for ecological balance in our country. It protects endangered species. It provides a home for all of the other fish, insects, birds, mammals, and reptiles we would like to protect, whether they are endangered or not.
In order to have this kind of healthy forest, we have come to a conclusion, I think pretty much unanimously in this country, that we are going to have to manage the forest differently than we have in the past.
What the debate is all about is how the Congress is going to respond to this emergency, not just from the catastrophic wildfires but from the other devastation of our forests that has created such an unhealthy condition that it literally threatens the health of probably somewhere between 30 and 70 million acres of forest land in the United States.
The administration has come forth with a far-reaching proposal that will begin to enable us to treat these forests in a sensible way. We have legislation pending before us--an amendment by the Senator from Idaho--that was put in place as a means of being able to discuss this. And we have been trying, over the course of the last week or so, to negotiate among ourselves in the Senate to be able to come to some conclusion about what amendment it might be possible to adopt as part of the Interior appropriations bill so that it will be easier for us to go in and manage these forests.
I am sad to say that so far our efforts at negotiation have not borne fruit. I think, therefore, it is necessary today to begin to recognize that unless we are able to reach agreement pretty soon, we are going to have to press forward with the kind of management approach that I believe will enable us to create healthy forests again.
Let me go back over some of the ground that has been discussed but perhaps put a little different face on it in talking about my own State of Arizona.
Some people may not think of the State of Arizona as containing forests. They may think of it as a desert State. The reality is, a great deal of my State is covered with some of the most beautiful forests in the entire United States--the entire world, for that matter. We have the largest Ponderosa pine forest in the United States. Ponderosa pines are enormous, beautiful trees, with yellowing bark. It is not uncommon at all for them to have a girth of 24 inches and above in a healthy forest. They are a little bit like if you want to think of the sequoia trees in California--not quite as big but coming close to that kind of magnificent tree.
One hundred years ago, the ponderosa pine forests in Arizona were healthy. These trees were huge. They were beautiful. There were not very many per acre; and that, frankly, was what enabled them to grow so well. They were not competing with a lot of small underbrush or small trees for the nutrients in the soil, the Sun, the water, which is relatively scarce in Arizona, and they grew to magnificent heights.
Several things happened to begin to change the circumstances. First of all, loggers came in and, seeing an opportunity, cut a lot of these magnificent trees. Secondly, grazing came in, and all of the grasses that grew because of the meadow-like conditions in which this forest existed were nibbled right down to the base in some cases. A lot of small trees, therefore, began to crop up and crowd out the grasses, and pretty soon there was not any grass. There was simply a dense undergrowth of little trees that began to crowd out what was left of the bigger trees, as well.
Then came the fires because these little trees were so prone to burning. It is a dry climate. They are crowded together. Instead of having maybe 200 trees per acre, for example, you might have 2,000 trees per acre or more. But they are all little, tiny diameter trees that are very susceptible to fire. And the big trees that are left, of course, are susceptible to fire as well because when the lightning strikes, it sets the small trees on fire, which then quickly crown up to the larger trees, creating a ladder effect, going right on up to the top of the very biggest trees. It explodes in fire, as you have seen on television. That kind of environment is what we are faced with today.
The old growth has come back. We have some magnificent, big trees, but they are being crowded out by all of these very small-diameter trees and other brush and other fuel that has accumulated on the forest floor. So what happens when there is a fire--whether man set or lightning created--is that the fuel begins to burn. It burns quickly just like a Christmas tree, if you can imagine, if you have ever seen a Christmas tree burn. It quickly burns the smaller trees and underbrush, and then catches the branches, the lower branches of the bigger trees, and then crowns out, and then you have a big fire. What is the result of the big fires in Arizona this year?
First of all, we can talk about the size of the fires. We can talk about the size of the Rodeo-Chediski fire in Arizona. It was about 60 percent the size of Rhode Island. This is simply one fire. You can see from this map the size of the Rodeo-Chediski fire. Here is the size of the State of Rhode Island. If you add in other fires that have occurred in Arizona this year, you have a size that exceeds the size of Rhode Island. That is in my State. That is how much has burned in my State--about 622,000 acres in this fire alone.
Let me show you what it looks like after that burn. And I have been there. I have walked it. I have driven through it. I have seen it from the air by helicopter. It is a devastating sight. Here it is, as shown in this photograph.
The ground is gray. It burned so hot that it created a silicone-like glaze over the soil. And, of course, it just absolutely takes all the pine needles and branches off the trees, so all you have are these sticks left standing. Some of these, by the way, are pretty good size trees. And there is salvageable timber in here if we are permitted to go in and do that salvaging.
But because of the glaze over the soil, the report from the experts in the field is that when the rains finally began to come, it did not soak into the soil; it ran off. And what you now find throughout the central and eastern part of Arizona is massive mud flow into the streams. It kills the fish. It makes the water unpalatable. It devastates the free flow of the water, so it creates new channels and erodes the soil. It goes around bridges, and there is one bridge that was very much in danger.
It flows into the largest lake in the State, Lake Roosevelt. And Roosevelt Lake is the biggest surface water source of water for the city of Phoenix and the other valley cities. There has been great concern that mud flow will affect the water quality and the water taste, as well as damaging the environment for the aquatic life in the lake and in the other streams.
There are some other sad things about this fire. Just to mention some of the devastation, the total of this fire was about 468,000 acres burned. The total in Arizona is about 622,000 acres. The structures burned in Arizona were about 423, the majority of which were homes and some commercial structures.
In the United States, this year alone, we have lost 21 lives as a result of the wildfires, and over 3,000 structures. The impacts on our forests in Arizona, the old growth trees will take 300 to 400 years to regenerate--300 to 400 years. To have a tree of any good size takes at least 100, 150 years.
We have endangered species in our forests, the Mexican spotted owl, for example. The fire burned through 20 of their protected active centers. So I think those who claim to be environmentalists, who want to protect a forest by keeping everybody out of it, and rendering it subject to this kind of wildfire have a lot of explaining to do when 20 of these protected centers for the Mexican spotted owls were ruined, devastated, burned up in this fire. The recovery time for this habitat is 300 to 400 years as well.
Twenty-five goshawk areas--this is another one of our protected species--and postfledging areas were impacted or destroyed. Wildlife mortalities--and these are just those that were actually documented--46 elks, 2 bears, and 1 bear cub, and, of course, countless other small critters. I think it is interesting that air quality is something that is frequently overlooked when you think of these fires. I was up there. I know because I had to breathe it. But just one interesting statistic is that the greenhouse gases from the Rodeo fire emitted during 1 day--just 1 day of the fire; and this thing burned for 2 to 3 weeks in a big way, and then longer than that in a smaller way--but 1 day's emissions of greenhouse gases from the Rodeo fire surpassed all of the carbon dioxide emissions of all passenger cars operating in the United States on that same day.
So if we are really concerned about greenhouse gases, just stop and think, all of the emissions from all of the cars in the United States did not equal 1 day's worth of emissions from this one fire. Of course, there were a lot of other fires burning in the country as well.
Full Text at link above.
LOL. You sound like you're trying to make sense and actually do something in the affirmative to help the environment.
All forests must be thinned, and provided with roads to permit proper care of these resources.
Environmentalism is Ignorance
Environmentalism is Terrorism
Time for Zero Tolerance!
The entire article is a very lengthy but excellent read. The only criticism I have is that the Senator put off limits any sustainable logging for the forseeable future. All logging he proposes is for purposes of forest management (taking out dense undergrowth, some small and maybe medium diameter trees). Twenty years ago when I hiked in the Santa Fe area (not in the wilderness area), I saw areas that had been designated for timber sales, with selected trees marked and others to be left standing. The result was large open areas between trees -- a park like setting where grasses could be reestablished and the remaining trees had moisture, sunlight and nutrients to thrive. Just like complete timber cutting of ponderosa and too many cattle on the forest will damage it, no timber cutting and no grazing will be as likely to cause devastation. Management is the key to a healthy forest. Benign neglect is a presciption for destruction.
Exactly right...we will never prevent forest fires but we sure can manage forest to prevent total-stand replacement fires that burn in the multi-hundreds of thousands of acres.
Logging for fire control is a perfectly legitimate method of fire management and produces multiple benefits. The only problem is, there aren't many logging companies left in some parts of the US...in the small town in Idaho where I used to live, 25-years ago there were 5 sawmills in operation within 30-miles of town...now there are none.
BTTT!
Been listening to Michael Savage, have you?! ;>))
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