By Rep. Steve Pearce New Mexico Republican
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wildfires across American forests destroyed more than 7 million acres of forest land and wilderness in 2002 — doubling the 10-year average. In the same year, New Mexico's wildfires alone burned more than 424,000 acres across the state. Over the last five months, New Mexico wildfires have destroyed over 20,000 acres of forests right in our own back yards.
The smart thing to do is learn from our past.
In the West, forests are great attractions, and it is our duty to take care of these treasures. I am trying to do my part. Today the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved H.R. 1904, The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, by a vote of 256-170.
New Mexico is a fire state and we have above normal risk for catastrophic wildfires as a result of drought conditions and overgrown forests. Unless we act sensibly and immediately, New Mexico forests, wildlife and residential areas will suffer irreparable consequences. The need for balanced forest thinning and resource management has never been clearer than now.
Common sense says forest thinning is the best thing we can do for our woodlands to prevent catastrophic wildfires. And balanced forest thinning will also help preserve New Mexico's water, protect our forests from disease and create economic development for rural economies such as Silver City and Rio Arriba County.
Our forests have become unhealthy. History shows us that New Mexico's forest lands once held roughly 30 to 50 trees per acre. Now, on average, our forests have more than 1,200 trees per acre.
Our trees are not getting sufficient minerals and nutrients, which makes them weak, unhealthy and susceptible to insects and disease. There are in excess of 1 billion excess trees in New Mexico, each consuming water which is taken away from our streams, rivers and lakes. Common sense tells us that when we thin our forests, our water supplies increase — an extremely important benefit to a water-starved state.
The mass of trees is so dense that fires spread much faster and are virtually impossible to contain. In addition, catastrophic wildfires are unnatural and an environmental disaster on many levels. These fires obliterate wildlife habitat and pollute the air, causing respiratory distress. Ash and erosion contaminate waterways and drinking water sources. And chemical changes occur in the soil, keeping trees from growing for up to 50 years after the hottest fires.
Tens of millions of acres of wildland-urban interface — where the forest meets homes — are at risk of destruction. If you live near a forest, your homes and communities are at risk of burning to the ground. I am not willing to sit back and let that happen.
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act does not, nor do I, advocate clear-cutting, but it is far past time to initiate a reasonable forest thinning and management plan.
I have been working with Republicans and Democrats on the House Resources and Agriculture Committees to enact the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, and 140 members of Congress, including many Democrats, are co-sponsors of this legislation which is a proactive plan to create guidelines for treatment of forest and range land to prevent catastrophic wildfires, thereby saving millions of acres of wildlife habitat and private property.
The bill authorizes the immediate treatment of 20 million acres of the most at-risk sections of 190 million acres, beginning with populated areas of wild land-urban interface, and leaving areas of designated wilderness untouched.
Federal and state governments and other stakeholders would approve all areas for treatment, similar to the guidelines established in the bipartisan Western Governors Association 10-year plan.
This treatment would include mechanical thinning and/or prescribed burns, and must abide by current environmental law, particularly the Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts.
The most unfortunate, sad and disturbing part about the forest thinning debate is that extreme environmentalists would watch our trees burn down before thinning one forest. Inflexible environmental extremists create a tremendous problem for our environment by opposing legislation that will dramatically increase the forest health.
While it may be politically convenient for people to point fingers at those of us who believe in proactive problem solving, all while living in homes that are constructed out of the very resources they proclaim to care about, we are working towards a solution that protects not only our forests but the people who live in and around them.
I ran for office so that I could help make life better for Southern New Mexico, and that is what I am doing. I am in the business of solving problems, not passing them down to our children. If we do nothing, our forests will become more unhealthy, the fires will become more severe, our homes more expensive and our rural way of life a thing of the past. Now is our chance to save our forests, homes, communities and the environment. It makes sense to thin our forests.
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