House Ag holds hearing with Forest Service chief

The House Agriculture Forestry and Horticulture Subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday with testimony from Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz.

Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., said in an opening statement, “Unfortunately, the Trump administration has been focused on topics other than wildfire preparedness: from its disruptive, and likely illegal reorganization plan and the consolidation of wildfire response under the Department of Interior, to a myopic focus on commercial timber harvest at the expense of hazardous fuels treatments – all of which are making our communities less safe.”

Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore.

But she also told Schultz, “Chief, you have a lot of experience in forestry, and my guess is that you’ve probably stopped some even worse things from happening under this administration. At the end of the day, though, we simply can’t be satisfied with avoiding the worst outcomes. We have got to do better.”

-The Hagstrom Report