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Fire prevention plan would thin U.S. forests

 
Published Sept. 10, 2000|Updated Sept. 27, 2005

President Clinton proposed spending about $1.6-billion to help communities recover from the forest fires that have scorched the West this summer and to thin millions of acres of federal forests in hopes of preventing future blazes.

A report submitted Saturday to Clinton by two Cabinet secretaries said the increased removal of trees and brush is needed to reverse almost a century's worth of firefighting policy that left forests with acres of undergrowth and ready-to-burn timber.

"For almost 100 years, our nation pursued a policy focusing on extinguishing all wildfires," Clinton said in his weekly radio address, broadcast from New York, where he attended the U.N. Millennium Summit.

"It was well-intentioned, but as a result, many of our forests now have an unnatural buildup of brush and shrubs. This excessive undergrowth fuels forest fires, making them far more dangerous and difficult to control."

Clinton also announced the release of nearly $40-million for 90 restoration projects across the West, where fires have charred 6.5-million acres and 38 large fires continue to burn across nine states.

Clinton's proposal led environmentalists to worry that stepped-up thinning could reopen federal land to large-scale commercial logging.

Also, congressional Republicans said they would have to weigh Clinton's request against other spending priorities.

The GOP is "committed to looking at all options," said Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, the House's fourth-ranking Republican.

Idaho Republican Larry Craig, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee's forestry subcommittee, said the report "contains some important initiatives that suggest" the Clinton administration officials "have at last recognized that our nation's publicly owned forests are not healthy and that this forest health problem is contributing to our current wildfires."

He hopes a hearing before his subcommittee this week will provide more details on Clinton's proposal.

The U.S. Forest Service will thin 2.4-million acres this year. The report from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman recommends an additional $257-million next year for clearing.