President Thanks Work Crews and Firefighters
Squires Peak Fire Area
Ruch, Oregon
11:50 A.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Thank you all for being here. I
just got a firsthand look at the terrible effects of the Squire fire.
First I want to thank the fire crews, the men and women of Oregon and
surrounding states who risk their lives to put these fires out. On
behalf of a grateful nation, I want to thank you for your service to
the country, and thank you for what you do.
I flew over the Biscuit fire today when we were coming in. It's
devastating. I mean it is big and it's a powerful fire that has been
raging for more than a month. It's amazing the scope of the
devastation that's taken place in Oregon, as well as other Western
states, here in this state. A million acres have burned. A million
acres have caught on fire. Hundreds of millions of trees have been
destroyed, countless lives have been affected.
The same thing all across the West. A lot of people whose lives
have been turned upside down. I saw firsthand the effects of fire in
Arizona. I remember going to that school, Governor, where the people
were just emotionally spent because of what the fire had done to them.
These devastating fires are -- threaten the safety of our
communities, obviously the lives of the firefighters. They destroy
homes. They ruin farms. These fires destroy critical wildlife
habitat, and they leave behind long-lasting environmental damage. And
as we work to put out the fires and to bring relief to the victims, we
have a responsibility as a nation to work together to prevent the
devastation that can be caused by future fires. We have a
responsibility to bring sensible policy and put it in place.
Today I'm announcing some steps my administration is going to do to
restore the health of America's forests -- steps that I believe, and we
believe, will help prevent the kind of destruction we've seen this
year.
Before I talk about that, I do want to thank Secretary Ann Veneman
and Secretary Gale Norton for coming and for working together, for
listening to the voices such as the voices of our governors. These two
ladies understand that not all the genius in the world is in
Washington, D.C., that if we listen to people whose lives are affected
by managing nature, that we'll probably get better policy -- not
probably; will get better policy.
I want to thank Jim Connaughton, who works on my staff and has
helped develop this policy, for being here. I want to thank, the
Governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber, for being here. John Kitzhaber and
Dirk Kempthorne brought the Western governors together to develop a
sensible policy as to how to deal with this issue, and Judy Martz and
Governor Jane Dee Hull are with us, as well.
This isn't a Republican issue or Democrat issue. Managing our
forests is an American issue. And it requires an approach that
understands there's difference of opinion and we ought to work together
to achieve common ground. And John's being here today sends that
signal loud and clear. I appreciate you so very much, Governor, for
coming. He's an interesting character who -- (laughter) -- who I enjoy
being around.
I appreciate Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Gordon Smith -- one
Democrat, one Republican, who have both made up their mind to get
something done. Senator Wyden has been working with Senator Craig to
develop sound policy. And of course, Greg Walden, Congressman from
this event, is a very active voice in reason, reasonable policy to help
the people of Oregon. I want to thank them for coming, as well.
I want to thank Ron Wenker, who led our tour, did a fine job.
Little did he know a couple of weeks ago that he'd be here entertaining
such august company and speaking so eloquently in front of the national
press corps about his job, and about the job of protecting our forests
and doing the best we can do. I want to thank the community leaders
who are here, people who care deeply about the future of this region.
I believe, like you believe, that our forests are one of our
nation's great treasures, and therefore, we have a responsibility to
protect our great treasure. It's one of our responsibilities as
citizens of our country. And yet, as we've seen, our treasure is being
wiped out by fire. I've looked, as you have, at why, and it's pretty
clear that this fire prevention strategy of our country has been
short-sighted and we, frankly, haven't done a very good job.
And when you haven't done a very good job at something, it's time
to take a step back and assess why and solve the problem. Forest
policies have not focused on thinning; just haven't. That's reality.
That's the truth. We haven't had a strategy to clear the forest floor
of built-up brush and densely packed trees that we have seen firsthand
here and in other places around the country create the fuel, the
kindling for extremely large fires, like those we're experiencing this
year.
The catastrophic wildfires kill the oldest trees, those which we
long to preserve. They kill just about everything that grows in the
soil. It's -- we should note that because of short-sighted policy,
even the Sequoias of California, Mr. President, are threatened. The
fires that ravaged the West have destroyed endangered species habitat.
They damaged fisheries. They've eroded soil. They've become breeding
grounds for beetles, as we just saw. We were in the midst of a
breeding ground for insects that prey upon weakened forests.
Now, they -- our policy has not had the health of our forests in
mind. The hands off policy that have contributed to this environmental
crisis have been well-intentioned; no question about that. Nobody is
questioning the intentions of those who have helped put this policy in
place. But they're dangerous -- dangerous plans. And we've got to do
something about it. All of us in elected positions must respond.
Some will say, well, there's thinning taking place, and let me just
put what's taking place in perspective to reality. There's -- at the
rate in which we're thinning our forests, it will take a century, 100
years, to restore America's 200 million acres of federal forest lands
to healthy and safe conditions. That's too long, as far as I'm
concerned. I know it's too long as far as forest firefighters are
concerned. It's too long as their senators are concerned. It's too
long. Therefore, we've got to develop a different strategy.
We must be active in our management of our forests. We must thin,
and we must quickly restore the areas that have been damaged by fire.
People who fight fires and who study forests, who know a lot more about
this subject than I do, agree. And that's what the American people
have got to know. Come out and speak to a firefighter about good
common-sense policy, and you'll hear what I just said.
Actively managing forests is going to be the centerpiece of this
administration. And that's what I made clear to those who work with
me. And we'll begin by identifying and protecting those areas that are
the most vulnerable to catastrophic fires -- areas which are near our
communities and our watersheds and other key areas.
In order to effect our healthy forest policy, we must cut through
the red tape and endless litigation that blocks efforts to restore
forest health. For example, a thinning project to prevent catastrophic
fire in the area where we were just standing was proposed six years
ago. They said, what can we do to make sure this area is protected.
Yet, because of burdensome regulatory hurdles and meritless appeals and
litigation, only a very small portion of this acreage was approved for
thinning before the fires came through. And we saw the difference
between an area that had been thinned and an area which had not been
thinned. And the difference is catastrophic. That's reality.
So, for the good of Oregon's forests, and really for the good of
her environment overall, and for the good of your economy, I've
directed the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior,
and the Council on Environmental Quality to do the following steps:
One, to authorize thinning projects on an emergency basis in the most
critical areas. Secondly, to speed up the process of developing
environmental assessments while considering the long-term threat that
fire-susceptible forests pose to endangered species; and to expedite
the appeals process.
Listen, we want our citizens at the local level to have a voice.
We want there to be an opportunity for our citizens to speak out.
That's the great American way. But we must discourage the endless
delays that prevent good forest policy from going forward. And
Congress should pass legislation that will ensure that vital forest
restoration projects are not tied up in courts.
I mean, we can do some of this through administrative action, but
Congress needs to act. And I'm confident Congress will act in a way
that doesn't exclude people, that, as a matter of fact, encourages
citizens to participate. I mean, there's nothing better than having
citizens worrying about how to conserve assets and resources.
I signed some legislation earlier this month in what they call a
supplemental, which provides protection for Black Hills National Forest
of South Dakota. The reason I bring that up is that slowly, but
surely, members of Congress understand that when there's a problem,
we've got to deal with it. And my attitude is, if -- and I recognize
the situation is different in Oregon than perhaps in South Dakota, but
managing the forest isn't. Good forest policy makes sense. And so, if
it's good enough for South Dakota or part of South Dakota, it ought to
be good enough for Oregon, and Arizona, and Montana.
And so I want us to move forward with policy. And there's other
ways to make sure that the communities are involved. John and I were
talking about to make sure that any good federal policy recognizes that
-- I think Ron might have said it -- one size doesn't fit all.
Obviously, the Oregon situation is different from other states. The
health of the forest isn't different, it's the same, but how to make
sure we have a healthy forest requires input from local people. The
Congress passed these pilot programs that encouraged partnerships of
non-profits or local governments or private companies to come together
to remove small trees and brush that fuel dangerous fires. That makes
sense.
But I don't understand why they need to be pilot programs. If it
makes sense and we want to manage our forests, these pilot programs
ought to be not pilot programs, but permanent programs, all around the
country, so that we don't have a century of work ahead of us to make
our forests healthy. We compress that time to a reasonable amount of
time so our children and grandchildren can have healthy forests, and so
your children and grandchildren aren't fighting fires all the time.
I also believe strongly that the 1994 Northwest Forest plan made
sense. It was a plan where people from different constituency groups
came together to talk about how to, first, make the forests healthy.
And that is the primary concern of this policy or any policy -- ought
to be how to manage our treasure. But at the same time, the plan
talked about how to protect the wildlife habitat found here in Oregon,
how to make sure that recreational areas were in good shape.
And there was a dividend, by the way, to the Northwest plan of 1.1
billion board feet taken a year of sustainable timbering, and that, of
course, that people can find work. And that makes sense to me.
Particularly in a place and a part of the world where people are having
trouble finding work.
Good forest policy yield a dividend. They yield healthy forests;
they yield places where people can bring their families; they protect
the endangered species; but also one of the dividends is work, where
people can put food on the table. And that's important. The human
condition is very important, as far as I'm concerned. When somebody is
looking for work who can't find work, we need to do something about
it.
So I want to thank you all for welcoming us here today. This is a
classic example of what is possible, given what happened and what is
happening. It is possible to have sound forest policy that will
protect against fire. It's possible. It is possible for us to work
together to achieve a good strategy to protect a national treasure.
My administration looks forward to working with both Republican and
Democrat alike to forge the policies to leave behind a legacy of
healthy forests.
Thanks for coming. Thank you for your concern, your deep concern
about this beautiful state, this wonderful area. May God bless you
all, and may God bless America. (Applause.)