Update – Senator Sylvia Allen
June 3, 2011
My heart goes out to those families in Alpine and Nutrioso, Arizona, who had to evacuate last night (June 2) because of the Wallow fire, which swept down from the ridge above Alpine. This is the community where my father was born and where some of my family still live. Sadly, there will be some who will have no home to go home to. I know what it is like to be forced to leave your home on a few hours notice. In 2002, we were forced to evacuate our home due to the Rodeo/Chediski Fires.
I once again must express my anger at the lack of forest management that, for the last 20 years, has turned our forests into a tinderbox of undergrowth, small trees, brush, and downed trees. In some areas of the forest around Alpine, the undergrowth was so thick that you could not even walk across the forest floor.
In 1990, Arizona had a thriving forest industry with 15 sawmills bringing $550 million a year to the Arizona economy and employing thousands of rural Arizona citizens. Many rural ranching families ran cattle across the forest land, helping to keep keep the undergrowth down and cleaned out. Over the years, their allotment numbers have been cut to the point that many have gone out of business.
Living through the “timber wars” of the 1990s, I know that the Forest Service was knee deep in lawsuits brought by environmentalist groups pushing for efforts to list the Mexican Spotted Owl and the Goshawk. The timber companies hung on as long as they could, spending thousands of dollars defending their legal contracts in court. Eventually, one by one, they went out of business, and their infrastructure was sold at auction.
There was a time when the Forest Service operated in the black with a very healthy return on their investment. The natural resources that were developed on Forest Service lands created jobs and products benefitting the American people. They were the only federal agency that accomplished such things.
All that changed when misinformation, faulty science, lawsuits, and downright lies were used to shut down our forests by those environmental groups that built multi-million-dollar businesses putting families out of work. These flawed environmental philosophies have made their way into federal policies that have now resulted in an unhealthy forest environment.
The castastrophic fires of the last few years are an indication of the health and vitality of our forests. This overgrowth of trees has depleted our watersheds. If the current disastrous Wallow fire burns for the next 15 days, it will put as much pollution into our air as 700 million cars running 24 hours a day for a year.
We must return to common-sense forest management. The federal government held 12 western states hostage and only agreed to grant us statehood if we gave up control of 60% of our land, assuring the states that they (the states) would have use of the land and be able to use the resources within the boundaries of our respective states. The federal government has broken its word.
Sylvia Allen
Senator Sylvia Allen
President Pro Tempore
602-926-5219
sallen@azleg.gov
