http://craig.senate.gov/press/

For Immediate Release:
July 9, 2004

Smokey says "Only you can prevent forest fires."

by Senator Larry Craig

During the Independence Day recess, I was fortunate enough to spend some time in the garden outside our home in Eagle. As I watered plants, pulled weeds, and took care of a few other duties around the yard, I thought about my property and was reminded what it means to be responsible for a piece of land and the resources in it.

Suzanne and I try to take good care of our house and the land surrounding it, and for good reason. Having a healthy space is important to our quality of life, that much is certain. But more important, our house and our property will be around long after my wife and I are gone. We'd like to keep it in good shape for our children, grandchildren, and future generations to use and enjoy.

The same should be true for our public lands, but with each decade that passes, the health of these valuable resources diminishes. Our public forests and wildlands have deteriorated to the point where they have become a threat to the cities, towns and private landowners who dwell in or near them.

Like many western states, a large chunk of Idaho is composed of federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Maintaining forest health holds a special significance for Idahoans. The forest products industry is important to the economy of our state, but harvesting trees provides more than just jobs. It also helps enhance the protection of wildlife, habitat, water quality, and those citizens who live close by. We know neglected forests soon become unhealthy, and the resulting diseased, dead and dying trees become fuel for wildfires.

Sadly, after several decades of environmental litigation, federal agencies were tied in knots, prevented from taking a proactive approach to fire mitigation by managing the forests. The environmental community said, "hands off" our public lands. Consequently, agencies and their personnel are continuously forced to prepare administrative records to defend their decisions in court, instead of spending more time in the forests.

Until just last year, federal land managers' tools for fire mitigation were whittled down until firefighting was the last available. The result so far this year has been 3 million acres burned - more than a million acres over the 10-year average, and summer is barely underway. But fighting fires is a very costly endeavor, and extremely dangerous to boot.

That danger has been uniquely highlighted by several airtanker crashes in the last few years. Citing concerns for tanker crews as well as firefighters and civilians on the ground, the Forest Service and BLM earlier this year grounded 33 planes in their tanker fleets. Replacing these aircraft with new ones would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would take several years. Thankfully, after further inspection, five of these planes have been returned to service, and several more may pass review in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, the Forest Service and BLM have put in place effective plans to counter the loss of these aircraft, and I commend them for their flexibility and swift action.

Having said that, I have always believed in the old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Fighting fires is a very reactive, rather than a preventative, approach.

More than 30 years of environmental litigation forced neglect of our public lands, but the Healthy Forests legislation that I helped pass last year is restoring the concept of active management of our forests and wildlands. For many of these treasures, Healthy Forests almost came too late, so it will be several years before we can catch up with the tens of millions of acres that are choking with dead, dry fuel and need rehabilitation.

Wildfires will never be completely eliminated. They are a vital part of the natural process of rejuvenation. But well-managed forests are much more capable of surviving a fire, which in turn preserves vital habitat for our wildlife and protects sensitive watersheds.

Homeowners can do their part to reduce the threat of fire damage to their property and home by clicking on www.firewise.org. Generations to come will be glad you did.

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