The Worst Congressman: Wally Herger Wants to Abandon NEPA to Salvage Log Burned Areas
In July, when President Bush made his “historic” visit to Northern California to view wildfires, Representative Wally Herger was on board the helicopter. Other than putting on some Nomex and shaking smoke jumpers’ hands, what has Wally Herger done for Californians during the 2008 Firestorm? Now that the fires are mostly contained, Herger has a plan to utilize emergency provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to salvage log the burned areas, much of which contain live old growth trees.
Herger’s Voting Record
Wally Herger is one of the worst representatives in Congress evident by his voting record. He is against women’s right to choose, the Endangered Species Amendment Act, alternative fuels and public transportation, alternative energy tax incentives, etc. Herger is for the war, FISA, drug war funding in Mexico and Central America, etc. Now he wants to open up the forests to logging without following the full guidelines of NEPA, which requires “federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions,” including an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
Herger’s Letter to the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
In order to skip all of the necessary studies required by NEPA, Herger has written a letter to the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to expedite the process under emergency provisions. CEQ can declare an emergency allowing salvage logging to occur on the over 1 million acres that have burned in California, completely ignoring the impact on endangered species, watersheds, etc.
The Honorable Ed Schafer
Chairman James L. Connaughton
Secretary of Agriculture
Council on Environmental Quality
1400 Independence Ave.,
SW 722 JacksonPlace, NW
Washington, DC 20250
Washington, DC 20503Dear Mr. Secretary and Chairman Connaughton,
As you know, California is experiencing one of our State’s most devastating fire seasons. As of the date of this letter, over a million acres of our state have burned, over a hundred residences have been destroyed or damaged, and thousands of our State’s citizens were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses. In many ways it has been an unprecedented fire season, and it is far from over. We appreciate everything the Administration has done to provide the necessary federal support and resources to assist our State in fighting these fires, protecting our citizens and communities, and helping those who have been impacted recover.
Our immediate focus and priority must continue to be on protecting life and property from active wildfires. At the same time, we believe we must also look ahead to the potential risk to life, property and public health that will persist even after the worst of the fires are brought under control. Specifically, rehabilitation, restoration and reforestation work will need to be done in order to protect the public and private property from the threats that are likely to follow from such a large-scale wildfire disaster. Specifically, given the scale and intensity of some of these fires, our State’s citizens could face risks of runoff into public waterways, mudslides, as well as an elevated fire risk created by the excessive amounts of burned and downed trees that have been left in the wake of these fires. These threats will need to be addressed quickly and cost-effectively.
We are very concerned, however, that the restoration, rehabilitation and fuel removal work that must be done in an expeditious fashion to address them will be delayed - if not halted entirely - by NEPA’s stringent review and analysis requirements and the endless cycle of appeals and litigation. Regrettably, and sometimes with tragic results, we have seen the well-intentioned yet burdensome, expensive and time consuming NEPA process stymie commonsense forest management projects necessary to improve forest health and reduce the risk to the public and the environment from catastrophic wildfires.
As you know, recognizing the need to avoid these bureaucratic obstacles and delays in an emergency situation, NEPA’s implementing regulations provide CEQ with very clear authority to adopt “alternative arrangements” to strict NEPA review and analysis. Specifically, 40 C.F.R. 1506.11, entitled “Emergencies,” provides in relevant part,
Where emergency circumstances make it necessary to take an action with significant environmental impacts without observing the provisions of these regulations, the Federal agency taking the action should consult with the Council about alternative arrangements.
Mr. Secretary and Chairman Connaughton, given the threat to public health and safety that will persist in the wake of these wildfires and the limited window of time in which we have to act, we urge you to invoke this authority and adopt “alternative arrangements” to strict NEPA compliance that will ensure that the Forest Service, working coordinately with State and local government, will have the regulatory flexibility necessary to complete fire recovery and restoration activities without delay. We believe the federal government must do everything possible to ensure that bureaucratic process requirements do not get in the way of federal, state and local efforts to address threats to public health and safety in the wake of the devastating fires that have severely impacted our State.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of this important and urgent request.
Sincerely,
Signatories:
Rep. Wally Herger
Rep. John T. Doolittle
Rep. Mary Bono Mack
Rep. Kevin McCarthy
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
Rep. Elton Gallegly
Rep. George Radanovich
Rep. David Dreier
Rep. Devin Nunes
Rep. Darrell Issa
Rep. John Campbell
Rep. Dan Lungren
Rep. Ed Royce
Rep. Jerry Lewis
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Rep. Gary Miller
Rep. Brian Bilbray
Rehabilitation masked as Salvage Logging
Herger equates rehabilitation with salvage logging. Salvage logging does not make the forests safer after a burn, and in fact, it makes burned areas more fire prone. The June lightning storm created, for the most part, slow moving beneficial fires where much of the timber remains alive, especially in old growth areas. Salvage logging in these areas would remove live trees, leaving behind large areas of slash, hampering natural regeneration, and essentially clearcutting our forests. Salvage logging is not the answer; the fires already made the forests healthier throughout much of California.
When massive burnout operations occurred in Northern California, residents suspected these fires were intentionally lit to widen the area that could be logged under salvage operations. Herger’s request only confirms these suspicions. Herger just wants to log the forests and ignore NEPA; he doesn’t care about the environment. Let’s hope he is defeated this fall, and Jeff Morris is elected! Herger must go!
Image: http://www.house.gov/herger/
Related posts on politics and California wildfires:
- 700 California Wildfires: Why Don’t We Have Enough Firefighing Resources?
- Are North American Wildfires an Arctic Savior?
- Wildfire Ecology Part 4: Salvage Logging Hinders Natural Regeneration and Makes Burn Areas More Fire Prone
- Wildfire Ecology Part 3: Lighting Fires to Fight Fires
- Wildfire Ecology Part 2: A Native American’s Thoughts on Forest Fire
- Wildfire Ecology Part 1: Almost 4 Weeks Later, 489 California Wildfires Still Burning
- The Politics of Fire Suppression: Did Bush Administration Budget Cuts Cause Bigger Wildfires?
It surely depends on what side one is on when describing a congressman “as the Worse.” From my vantage point, Wally Herger is one of the best congressmen from California. Only enviro freaks, women right nazis would write such a one sided biaised article as this one.
Yaeger, perhaps you should study history before calling writers names. The role of women in Nazi Germany was to be be a good wife to her husband, keep a decent home, and raise the children. These are the stereotypical roles the women’s rights movement has changed. Women can be good wives and mothers and have careers, just like fathers.
Herger’s proposal is a non-starter, like pretty much everything he does. Its relevance is that Herger can’t reallly think for himself: here he and the rest of the hard-core anti-environmental wing of the California Republicans in Congress are serving as a mouthpiece for the hard-line timber industry position, so this is an announcement of What They Want — their opening gambit, as it were. Big surprise, no. Coming from Herger, rather than Bush, means they’ve figured it’s better to keep it a relatively localized issue. That whole Biscuit fire salvage thing didn’t work out so well for them after all.
Herger is by most measures one of the least effective members of Congress. He’s certainly one of the worst on environmental issues.
[...] to the Environmental Protection Agency: “The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by [...]
I think you are wrong. I live in N. Cal and have seen what happens when the forests are not cleaned our after fires. It becomes worse down the road. Also I know several women, who I think are representative of those who have gone through abortions (so-called choice), they suffer with extreme remorse and regret which they carry every day of their lives. It is wrong to destroy human life. I do not think it is correct for taxpaye dollars to pay for abortion expense.