Rep. McClintock gave the following floor speech on March 3, 2009.
M. Speaker: Sierra Pacific Industries just announced the closure of its sawmill in Quincy, California, throwing another 150 families out of work.
They made it clear that the recession wasn’t the cause but merely the catalyst. The real cause is that their regulatory costs – and litigation because of regulation – now exceeds their profit margin. Two thirds of their harvest is tied up as a result.
Sierra Pacific constructed this small log-mill when the Congress passed legislation promoting tree-thinning in the surrounding forests to prevent forest fires.
But that law has not been implemented because of endless litigation by environmental groups. Sierra Pacific notes that (quote) “nearly two thirds of the current year’s timber sale program is enjoined or withheld from sale pending the outcome of litigation.”
So today, another 150 families in the little town of Quincy are without work – direct casualties of a retrograde Luddite ideology that finds its power in the tangle of government laws that is destroying the enterprise and prosperity of our people.
We should not forget how these forests are maintained; tax dollars! Unfortunately, most tree huggers think they protect the forests sitting on their asses writing laws keeping the rest of us out of the forest. People who buy Adventure Passes (taxation pass), people who buy a fishing lisc.,a hunting lisc, who buy green stickers for their off road vehicles, who trail ride their horses, mountain bike and hike. These people pay for our forests. Not some guy writing laws protecting creatures he wouldn't know if it bit him on the butt. But, tree huggers have lobbyists too.
IMO anytime we are told things can be done "smarter" it's BS and it's going to cost extra. "Smarter" means let me be in charge because I'm smarter than you. Let it burn and get out of the way or cut it back and get some of our taxes reimbursed by selling the timber.
Common sense should lead.
Sorry for my ramblings
Not shure what you really ment there steve, but thinning is good,very good, just like in your garden. Space must be maintained to allow the full width as well as length or you have poles as they all race for the sun. Then they are destroyed by wind snow, beetles etc. There is a great book around if you can find it at your library it is called Fire in the Sierra Nevada Forest. It compairs pictures taken over 100 years ago an pictures taken in about 2003 of the same places, showing how badly over grown all of the forest have become in part because of such better fire fighting, planes etc. An of course the ever loving idiot kooks who just block the way of common sense. Keep on it best you can Tom
If the environmentalists really cared about the environment, they would allow selective logging to reduce the fuel buildup and the pest outbreaks that naturally occur if you do nothing. The current inaction results in catastrophic fires which waste timber and erode precious soils which have taken eons to form. Makes you wonder what their real agenda is. Maybe they like it when businesses close and people have to relocate to the cities, because then the forest lands can be "re-wilded", turned into off-limits wilderness areas devoid of any human "interference" with nature.
"Stupid is as stupid does."
Well said, Ari! I've nothing to add!
One of the families that have lost his job is my son. So I know what it is like when it hits home.
The tree thinning to reduce wild fires has been stoped by nuts(envirmental groups). Last season this area had two (2) devistating wild fires. They no longer need to be thinned!! Now the envirmentalists have stoped the salvage of the damaged timber. It is to be allowed to rot where it stands. I live in a beautiful timbered area. Am I next to lose everything?
Dear Senator McClintock,
Although I am not a constituent, we live in Howard Berman's district, we heartily support you and believe you are a voice of common sense in our increasingly Marxist government.
I question the basis for the environmentalists agenda. Is it merely a egocentric trip on the power which they hold over our nation or worse one more ocntrol of the economy and the people? My husband is a professional photographer by avocation and a retired economics
professor. We are common-sense nature lovers by heritage. Trees, particularly the ones harvested for lumber such as the pine, have a finite life due to the very shallow root system. The trees are subject to bark beetle infestation and other infestations as they grow older or if drought conditions are extensive. Case in point, we watched the death of thousands of acres of trees north of Klamath Falls OR because the "environmentalists" would not allow common sense harvesting. The remaining trees are a hazard to vehicles as they topple in the wind In addition, the wild life is dying out as there is not enough foraging growth to sustain them. Ari Goldberg made the point in fewer words.
Maintain your integrity in the face of the current political agenda.
Reva Sims
Actually I don't see this as completely the fault of government actions, both Sierra Pacific's building of the mill and it's closing. The "tree thinning" theory is poor forestry and poor ecology to start off. Sierra Pacific, should have realized that there would be challenges and been prepared for such, instead they relied on an agressive Administration to protect them from the challenges and built their mill. When the Adminsitration, first failed to protect them and was then voted out of office, the policy lost its support and the challenges can be expected to be upheld. Smart logging in the National Forest lands can be achieve and profitable, however we must remember the motto of the National Forests is "Land of Many Uses". Let's not forget the Many.
Steve R,
I wish that the idea of tree thinning is bad thing. Here is San Diego and Riverside counties in California, if there had been tree thinning and removal of bad trees killed by bark beetles, we probably wouldn't have had the 100s of thousands of acres of forest destroyed by the wildfires. Unfortunately the "nature" people wouldn't allow the Forest Service to go in and take care of the crowded and dead trees because it would "hurt the environment". Well, Mr. Steve R, take a drive up in our dead, black mountains and tell me that thinning trees and maintaining our forests to be healthy (clearing dead trees and overgrown brush) is poor forestry and poor ecology. Guess what? There is no environment now!