Urges the Bush Administration, Congress, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Interior to expedite the regulatory process’s to insure a timely salvage and rehabilitation of the Nation’s forests burned in the 2002 fire season.
Resolution
WHEREAS, the catastrophic 2002 fire season drastically altered and adversely affected thousands of acres of Federal forest land critical to numerous wildlife species and killed millions of dollars worth of valuable standing timber,
WHEREAS, it is incumbent upon the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to bring all resources to bear to quickly develop alternative rehabilitation options and to act decisively and rapidly upon the chosen direction,
WHEREAS, the reduction of the fuel load must be a key focus to prevent another conflagration similar to the 2nd and 3rd Tillamook Burns,
WHEREAS, salvage of dead timber must be an integral part of those rehabilitation plans, to capture timber values before they are lost to insects and decay and to use those salvage dollar receipts to offset the cost to the US Treasury for the rehabilitation work,
WHEREAS, aggressive reforestation must be an integral component in those rehabilitation plans in order to avoid the development of large scale brush fields where forests once stood,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that members of the Oregon Logging Conference respectfully request US President George W. Bush, Honorable Members of the US House of Representatives and US Senate, the Secretary of Agriculture, and Secretary of Interior to initiate immediate plans to salvage and rehabilitate Federal lands burned in the 2002 fire season.