“Congress’s passage of the Healthy Forest Act today is a significant, innovative step toward reducing the bureaucratic process that often inhibits us from adequately protecting our public and private forests. The historic passage of this legislation today will provide new, innovative procedures toward combating the devastating effects events such as wildfires and insect infestation have on our forests.

“Tens of millions of acres of public and private forests throughout the South and the Midwest face catastrophic damage from a host of pests, like the Southern Pine Beetle, Red and White Oak bores, and others –and Arkansas is no exception.  This initiative will provide us with the resources we need to curb the risk of these dangers from occurring in our own national forests.  In Arkansas, almost one out of every three acres of forest will be eligible for the expedited procedures authorized by this bill. 

“We have environmentalists and then we have extremists. True environmentalists like myself believe we must properly manage our national forests in order to protect and preserve them, and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act will do just that.”