Contact: Shana Stribling 202.224.0309 Rich Chrismer 202.224.4812
Friday, November 21, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent today praised the final passage of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. The Senators said this long over-due legislation will bring common sense to national forest management. On the Senate Forestry Committee, Sen. Talent worked to ensure the bill addressed the specific needs of Missouri forests, not just those on the western plains.

"I am pleased that my colleagues in both the House and Senate acted swiftly on this important legislation. The time for good forest management is long over-due and this bill will bring much needed reforms," said Bond. "This bill will bring some common-sense to forest management in Missouri and all across the nation. This legislation will help address Missouri's number one forestry problem of oak decline and mortality which have greatly increased Missouri's risk of catastrophic wildfires. The state of Missouri is lucky to have the leadership of Senator Talent who has shown real leadership on forest management through his position on the Senate Forestry Committee."

"For too long, extreme environmentalists have argued that human management of the forest is inconsistent with forest preservation," said Sen. Talent, a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. "I believe this assumption is the exact opposite of the truth. The Healthy Forests Initiative will give forest managers the tools they need to improve forest health, create jobs and protect the environment and wildlife of all kinds. For Missouri, the bill will protect our forestland from wildfires like those we saw recently in Southern California, it will help stop the spread of the red oak borer in the Mark Twain Forest and it will create and protect thousands of jobs. Senator Bond and I both worked very hard to get this bill passed and this is a tremendous accomplishment for the Senate."

The final version of the Healthy Forests legislation passed both the House and Senate. The bill will now go to the President for his signature. Senators Bond and Talent stressed that due to a lack of active forest management Missouri forests face potential catastrophic wildfire. This problem needs immediate action, otherwise many of America's most pristine forests are at risk to wildfire devastation.

The dead limbs and debris that plague Missouri forests reduce food for wildlife and contribute to fuels buildups, which increases the dangers of wildfires. In turn, these wildfires endanger wildlife habitat areas, healthy watersheds and neighboring private lands. Missouri in particular has huge volume of dying forest land throughout southern Missouri as a result of infestation by an insect known as the red oak stem bore.

The bipartisan Healthy Forests that passed the House and Senate will cut through unnecessary red tape and speed up the review and approval process for forest health restoration projects, while at the same time preserving the appropriate environmental review process. The expedited reduction of forest fuels and the thinning of underbrush would greatly improve the health of Missouri's forests. There has been a significant increase in the buildup of these fuels in National and State Forest land in the state of Missouri as a result of recent tornados, several years of drought, oak decline and oak mortality.

The Healthy Forests bill will address most of the forest health issues in Missouri and prioritize them for expedited cleanup. Both Senator Bond and Talent have met with Missouri forest scientists and they believe that this legislation takes the right approach to restoring the health of Missouri's forests.