The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“FOREST MANAGEMENT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Senate section on pages S2385-S2386 on April 9, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FOREST MANAGEMENT
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, 6 years ago last month I gave my first speech in the Senate Chamber. It dealt with an especially important forestry issue. I continue to have significant interests in these matters as chairman of the Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management.
In particular, as chairman of this key subcommittee, I am committed to ending the tradition of suspicion and disagreement that has characterized so much of forest management over the decades. I am pleased to be able to announce this morning a development that takes a significant step in that direction.
In March of 1996, what brought me to this floor was my opposition to the so-called salvage rider, an approach that allowed timber sales to jeopardize the health of the forests in my home State of Oregon and elsewhere. I believed then, as I do now, that salvage sales that eliminate public input, prohibit legal appeal, and limit environmental analysis, are anathema to responsible and effective forest management. Now, 6 years later, I rise in this Senate to announce the cancellation of a particularly important salvage rider timber sale and to emphasize that, in my view, salvage riders are no way to do business in the natural resources field.
I am pleased to be able to announce this morning the cancellation of the Eagle Creek timber sale in my home State of Oregon. From its inception, I believed the Eagle Creek salvage sale was not subject to adequate review and that the planned logging would result in excessive environmental damage. For more than 3 years, I have worked to prevent that damage. In July of 2000, I called on the Department of Agriculture to convene an independent review team to analyze the threat. The team found that, indeed, the sale did pose a greater risk than anticipated to the well-being of the Eagle Creek forest.
Today, I offer my thanks to Agriculture Secretary, Ann Veneman, who followed through on her commitment to review the team's findings, for choosing to implement them, and for effectively stopping the timber sale that would have done significant environmental damage.
The Eagle Creek sale is an example of a sale that should never have moved forward in the first place. At the core, section 318 salvage sales are inherently flawed because they take the American people, the public that we represent, out of the process of managing public land. As I thank the Secretary of Agriculture for stopping this flawed sale this morning, I call on the administration to oppose further salvage riders. Those who would follow the failed Eagle Creek effort are no more likely to respect the health of the Nation's forests or the wishes and needs of the Nation's forest communities and stakeholders.
When the Government pursues natural resources issues with no opportunity for public comment, discussion, or appeal, the only result is distrust and dissention. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Forests and Public Lands Management, on my watch I am going to do everything to work with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to avoid that kind of approach.
I am especially pleased the county payments laws that I authored with our colleague from Idaho, Senator Larry Craig, are an example of how the logjam over forest policy can be broken. That is an approach that provides for the ecological health of forests and also helps to ensure the economic survival for scores of rural communities. Our county payments legislation helps widen the way for a real discussion of forest management policy and an open discussion that must continue.
I come to the floor this morning to reaffirm my commitment to new and inclusive approaches to addressing the issues of forest management.
The administration has now made the right decision on Eagle Creek. It is time to halt the destructive practice of salvage sales around this country.
I look forward to working on a bipartisan basis with our colleagues and with the Secretary of Agriculture to promote a balanced forest policy that protects the remaining old growth in our national forests.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Clinton). Without objection, it is so ordered.
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