Last week, the Congressional Western Caucus held a hearing entitled “Seeking State Solutions: Forest Health, Wildfires, and Habitat Protection” at the Colorado State Capitol. Co-Chairmen Steve Pearce (R-NM) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) heard from Gale Norton, Former Secretary of the Interior, and Mike King, Executive Director of Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
Norton advocated for controlled burns, which she called an “immensely valuable” management tool, but also have “dangers. We are facing droughts not seen previously, while at the same time people are moving into areas where they are surrounded by forests.”
Pearce said that last summer both Colorado and New Mexico experienced absolutely devastating wildfires that destroyed hundreds of homes and nearly 700,000 acres of habitat combined. ‘I appreciate my colleagues and our bipartisan group of witnesses for taking this opportunity to discuss what we can do at every level to ensure the safety and health of our forests. One of the goals of this hearing was to get input from state and local officials who are affected by these fires, so that we can provide responsible oversight of how our forests are managed. I am hopeful that we will return back to a proactive approach in fire prevention and forest management, and put control back in the hands of those who live and work in our forests to keep them thriving for generations to come.”
Lummis said, “The federal approach to forest management and wildfire prevention isn’t working as evidenced by the millions of acres of scorched forest throughout the west. The solution, once again, is right under our noses at the state level, where we see more proactive management and healthier forests on state lands. The Western Caucus is dedicated to giving states more control over all of the forest health decisions within their borders, because wildfires don’t respect federal boundary lines. Particularly in Wyoming, where the vast majority of our forests are federally-owned, these decisions can have devastating consequences for the safety and economic well-being of Wyoming communities.”
– U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (WY), Congressional Western Caucus Co-Chairman