For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 21, 2002
Fact Sheet: The Healthy Forests Initiative
Today's Presidential Action
President Bush traveled to Oregon today to announce his new
Healthy Forests Initiative. The Bush Administration will:
- Significantly step up efforts to prevent the damage caused by
catastrophic wildfires by reducing unnecessary regulatory obstacles
that hinder active forest management;
- Work with Congress to pass
legislation that addresses the unhealthy forest crisis by expediting
procedures for forest thinning and restoration projects; and
- Fulfill the promise of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan to ensure the
sustainable forest management and appropriate timber production.
Background on Today's Presidential Action
The 2002 fire season is already one of the worst in modern
history. More than 5.9 million acres have burned this year -- an area
the size of New Hampshire and twice the annual average. This year's
fires have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes,
destroyed more than 2,000 homes and structures, and caused the deaths
of 20 firefighters. These fires have also killed hundreds of millions
of trees, devastated habitat, and severely damaged forest soils and
watersheds for decades to come.
America's public lands have undergone radical changes during
the last century due to the suppression of fires and a lack of active
forest and rangeland management. In healthy forests, low-intensity
fires help rejuvenate habitat by clearing out underbrush and small
trees, leaving an open forest with strong, fire-resistant, mature
trees. Today, the forests and rangelands of the West have become
unnaturally dense, and ecosystems have suffered.
When coupled with seasonal droughts, these unhealthy forests
are vulnerable to unnaturally severe wildfires. They are overloaded
with the fuels for fires -- underbrush and small trees. A large,
catastrophic fire can release the energy equivalent of an atomic bomb
and destroy, rather than renew, our forests.
Currently, 190 million acres of public land and surrounding
communities are at increased risk of extreme fires. In May, the
federal government reached agreement with 17 western governors, tribal,
and local officials on a comprehensive 10-year Fire Plan implementation
strategy to reduce the threat of severe fires and promote healthy
forests. This strategy calls for active forest management, through
thinning and prescribed burns, to reduce the unnatural buildup of
fuels.
Current firefighting techniques are often successful, but land
managers must do more to prevent these catastrophic fires. The federal
government has provided record levels of support for firefighting, but
efforts to tackle the root cause of these fires through active forest
management are too often hindered by unnecessary procedural delays and
litigation.
For example, in Oregon, federal officials identified the
Squires Peak area as a high fire risk in 1996, and began planning a
project to thin crowded trees and dense underbrush on 24,000 acres.
After six years of analysis and documentation, administrative appeals
and two lawsuits, work was allowed to begin on 430 acres of the
original 24,000-acre project. When lightning ignited the Squires Peak
fire on July 13, 2002, with only a fraction of the area thinned, the
fire quickly spread to 2,800 acres. The thinned area was unharmed by
the fire. In unthinned areas, the fire killed most trees, sterilized
soils and destroyed the habitat of threatened spotted owls. The fire
cost $2 million to suppress, and $1 million will be needed to
rehabilitate the devastated area.
The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which was designed to produce
a healthy and sustainable forest economy while providing needed habitat
protection, has failed to live up to its promise due to costly delays
and unnecessary litigation. The Bush Administration will work with all
interested parties, including Congress, to resolve the legal and
procedural problems that have undermined the promise of the Northwest
Forest Plan.
For more information on the President's initiatives, please visit
www.whitehouse.gov
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