Westerman Releases Statement Ahead of 2023 Fire Season

Press Release

"Federal forests, particularly in the western U.S., make up the vast majority of the 80 million acres at high risk for wildfire and are in desperate need of large scale comprehensive restoration with a long-term strategy for continued resiliency. Haphazardly throwing large sums of money here and there and hoping something sticks is not comprehensive, strategic or remotely on course to be successful. It is encouraging to see that President Biden and some in his administration are recognizing the need for forest management and that it made the cut on his talking points and travel schedule. I'd be happy to sit down with President Biden anytime and explain things from a forestry standpoint, and how we have Republican solutions in Congress that will actually make a difference in forest health and resiliency while saving the taxpayer money to boot. Until we make these long-term changes, land managers will continue having to sacrifice ounces of prevention for pounds of cure, all of which costs more and more money while doing nothing to mitigate the underlying issues. We can't keep spending massive amounts of money to treat minimal acreage, and we can't simply spend our way out of these self-inflicted wildfire disasters waiting to happen."

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