Pushing for O&C funds and outlining the effect of federal land management policy on the West, Congressman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) testified last week before the House Committee on Natural Resources.

He told the committee, “Let us not defend a system that is so complicated that it takes three times longer to remove a burned, dead tree than to rebuild the Pentagon.”

He said that an increasingly urban population that in the East is far removed from forest realities, is part of the problem. He added that a “well-funded environmental political industry that aggressively opposes active forest management” is another.

Plus, he added, an indecisive, if not bipolar Congress, has not helped.

As chairman of the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health in the 109th Congress, Walden led the effort for responsible forest management following catastrophic events like forest fires.

“Yes, the West is changing,” he said, “not just because of changing demographics, but largely as a result of federal policies and judicial decisions which keep our forest and rangeland professionals from managing forests.

“Healthy communities, healthy forests and healthy rangelands go hand-in-hand.  If we are to see broad and long-term stewardship success, Congress must step up to the plate and pass laws to allow for thoughtful, quick, and active stewardship of our federal lands.”

Walden also requested that Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.VA.) give the “earliest possible consideration” to H.R. 17, the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (county payments). Walden and Congressman Peter DeFazio sent a letter to Rahall on Jan. 26, asking that the committee consider H.R. 17 as quickly as possible.

The Natural Resources Committee is one of two House committees with jurisdiction over the legislation.

Regarding H.R. 17, Walden said, “Counties in much of the West are suffering dramatic cuts in their budgets right now; teachers are being given pink slips; and libraries are going to close in the most populous county in my district in April if we don’t act in this Congress to keep a promise that has been made to these counties since Theodore Roosevelt basically created the forest reserves 100 years ago.

“So I would encourage earliest possible consideration in this committee as we did in 2005 to move that legislation forward.”

Walden said that in Oregon and the Second Congressional District, in particular, one of the most obvious and overriding influences is land ownership.

“In my district, more than 50 percent of the land base is owned by the federal government,” he noted. “In other words, politicians and federal employees in Washington, D.C. have an influence over my constituents unimaginable to most in the East.  As laws and regulations are churned out from within the beltway, Westerners feel their impact most intensely, particularly those concerning the management of federal lands.”

He then listed 10 of the major laws with which federal land management agencies and local communities must deal.

“Individually each of these laws provides important environmental safeguards,” Walden explained, “but collectively they intertwine and overlap in often contradictory ways that make it nearly impossible for federal land managers, local elected officials, partnership groups, and private citizens to navigate -- even simple decisions are vulnerable to lawsuits on procedural grounds.

“The result is legal gridlock. 

“In 1986 the national forests in my district produced a timber sale program of 2.226 billion board feet at a value of about $213 million, a quarter of which, $53 million, went to the local counties for schools and roads.

“Twenty years later, in 2006, the timber sale volume was a mere 198 million board feet worth revenues of $17 million, less than 10 percent the 1986 levels.

“The loss of family wages and the impacts on many local economies and their basic community infrastructure has been dramatic. 

“The collapse of the timber sale program and the resulting job losses weren’t restricted just to my district, but were felt across the country in nearly all counties near national forests: Annual nationwide federal land harvest averaged around 11 billion board feet for decades, dropping to below 2 billion board feet in the 1990s.”

Walden noted that as less wood from national forests became available, the need for wood was responded to by increasing imports to record levels, largely from countries with poor environmental policies and safeguards.

“Were job losses in rural America necessary?” asked Walden. “Is it now necessary for us to further ship our jobs overseas and rely on foreign natural resources?”

He said that long before 1986, national forest growth had begun to exceed harvest, beginning in the 1930s.  “In fact,” he said, “it is evident that not only has growth exceeded harvest, but mortality has exceeded harvest as well. 

“Many more trees are dying on our national forests than are being harvested. The rest of the story, unless you’ve been a hermit for the last few years, was not just predictable but inevitable.

“The explosive increase in forest fuels, combined with drought, has resulted in a huge increase in the number and size of catastrophic wildfires -- to a record-breaking 10 million acres last year.

“In the words and actions of President Teddy Roosevelt we can still hear the echo of balance and multiple use; of providing for the needs of that day, and for the needs of the future.

“Teddy Roosevelt,” said Walden, “was many things, but principal among them he was a man of action.  And if he were to join us today, I hardly believe he would be
pleased to know that 190 million acres of the federal forest reserves are subject to catastrophic wildfire, disease and bug infestation. 

“The man who charged up San Juan Hill would never stand for the gridlock that has overtaken the ability of the educated and trained public land management professionals to effectively steward our natural resources and special places.  And neither should we. 

“Let us not defend a system that allows the symphony of fiddlers to tie us up in court for years while bugs devour our forests and fires ravage our communities.

Let us not defend a system that is so complicated that it takes three times
longer to remove a burned, dead tree than to rebuild the Pentagon.

“And let us not believe that we lack the power to change things.

“Gridlock, litigation, divisiveness, process predicament and polarization -- these are words and phrases that describe public lands issues today.

“Not only do we have the power to affect change, but also we have the solemn
responsibility to identify what is wrong, engage the public in finding solutions and then take the action necessary to bring about a better policy.”

Walden continued, “Yes, the West is changing, not just because of changing demographics, but largely as a result of federal policies and judicial decisions which keep our forest and rangeland professionals from managing forests.

“Healthy communities, healthy forests and healthy rangelands go hand-in-hand.  If we are to see broad and long-term stewardship success, Congress must step up to the plate and pass laws to allow for thoughtful, quick, and active stewardship of our federal lands.”