Speeches

Remarks of Governor Judy Martz
At the Montana Logging Association
Noon, Kalispell
May 18, 2001

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

There is something so very special, so very unique about our way of life here in Montana. Sometimes we don't look often enough within ourselves to understand our uniqueness, and outsiders rarely appreciate it.

But Montana's uniqueness comes from her people and from our communities - communities whose core values are as deeply embedded as their determination and their pride.

Unfortunately, our very way of life can be so profoundly changed by heavy-handed, top-down tactics that affect our smallest and most fragile communities in the most enormous ways.

Make no mistake. Every single Montanan has a vested interest and indeed desires to protect our public lands and scenic vistas. Our lands are the fabric of our very way of life. But we Montanans, not political opportunists, ought to be the driving force behind our land management solutions.

Thankfully, we have got a President in the White House who understands that.

Even the Forest Service and the GAO agree that 39 million acres of national forests in the interior West are at a high risk of catastrophic fire. We in the West know that massive fires could have negative impacts on wildlife habitat, fisheries, air and water quality and soil erosion.

Our national forests are national treasures - they need to be cared for. We do great work on state lands and there's no reason our federal lands shouldn't enjoy the same stewardship.

And that lack of stewardship is forcing Montanans to watch our forests suffer. We're watching our livelihoods, our recreation and our communities slip away. We feel urgency, and even despair.

We need to make necessary revisions to federal laws that are precluding our national forests from being managed appropriately.

We need forest management plans that reflect the importance of roads to forest management and growth.

It's gratifying to know that a judge in Idaho has determined that our ability to responsibly manage forest health can be severely impacted if the Clinton Roadless Initiative takes effect. A genuine effort to allow more state participation is necessary to create a plan that works for everyone, particularly those of us who live in and make our livings from them.

As the former Clinton-Gore Administration has closed our roads, reduced our grazing allotments, stopped our oil and gas exploration, crippled our timber-dependent communities, and threatened recreation-dependent businesses as well, the financial security of our families has fallen to nearly dead last in the nation.

That's why we're here today. We must collectively voice our opinions on the oppressive federal attempts to skirt the law with their initiative that lacks our concurrence and our meaningful involvement from beginning to end.

Washington, DC has forgotten that our country is a federation of states. And that within that federation of states comes the lifeblood our nation.

It is the hard working people of the states that has allowed us as a nation to prosper, to enjoy a standard of living unsurpassed in the world.

It is from calluses on your hands, the sweat on your brow, and the strain on your backs and on those loggers and mill operators who have preceded you that have built our communities, and yes, even this nation. It is time, Washington D.C. listened first to those closest to the land.

Forest health and sustainability must be analyzed simultaneously. With 39 million acres in the intermountain west primed for fires, I want to find solutions that will make our forests healthier so that they are open and available to all Montanans for the multiple uses we all enjoy.

We need a new direction. First and foremost, we have to end detached, impractical management practices that have little connection to local needs with only a superficial interest in local participation. It doesn't work and never will.

If the Washington political machine would let district rangers make land management decisions in consultation with local, county and state governments we could not only sustain good paying jobs for Montanans, but we could also bring about much healthier forests in the process.

Second, we must work tirelessly to encourage greater cooperation between federal agencies and states and counties. That is what government should be about.

I pledge to work cooperatively to protect our Montana communities, our Montana way of life, our rural Montana heritage and our Montana working families. Montanans are the true stewards of our lands.

Third, we must work together to craft land management policies that are more reflective of local consensus and that provide stability and predictability to our region and local communities.

Our traditional values can help us build a new Montana and a better nation. Let's work together. Let's make our voices heard. I thank you and pray that God continues to bless the hands that made Montana and this nation a better place to live.

It has troubled me how here in Montana, in the heart of millions of acres of multiple-use forestland that we continue to struggle with a wood supply shortage at our mills.

Year after year, long-established mills are forced to close their doors. And many hundreds of Montanans that for generations have earned their living in the woods products sector are forced into unemployment. All for reasons that are for the most part within the control of society.

It seems so contrary to me that at a time when world consumption for wood products is at record high, we, as an American society, continue to shift that opportunity to foreign lands.

We all know that forest management or dare I say "timber harvesting" serves a much broader purpose than just jobs and wood fiber production. It is a major tool in the maintenance of forest health.

If there's a silver lining in the catastrophes of the fires of 2000, its an increasing awareness of the need to "tend " to our forests, that the commonly accepted philosophy that a "hands off" management philosophy is unacceptable. We must carefully, thoroughly, and aggressively manage our forests if we are to protect all the forest values that we cherish.

Actually that concept isn't anything new. Foresters have been preaching it for years. In fact the State's Forest Land Management Plan is based on it.

Speaking of the state, I want to report to you as chairman of the Land Board that the current Land Board as well as the previous two Land Boards are as environmentally conscious as any land management oversight team across the nation.

Yet over the past decade, while we've seen forest management of our National Forests whither to a standstill the State program has escalated. Every year since the increased sustained yield target in 1995, DNRC has met or exceeded that target.

All under the watchful eye of environmental groups and with the approval of the environmentally conscious and politically sensitive Land Board --and even following last summer's fires.

Under skillful and aggressive direction, more than 20 million board feet is decked in mill yards across western Montana, and nearly another 10 million board feet slated for sale this coming fall. Darby, Montana has seen an economic timber-boom reminiscent of the 60s.

Not only has Darby benefited, but the much needed wood has allowed several Montana Mills to hang on through the break-up months, hundreds of woods workers were put to work, the school trust will generate about $5 million dollars and much needed mitigations were placed on the ground in the first step towards restoring forest health.

A drop in the bucket? Perhaps. But just imagine the ramifications if a similar approach could be implemented on the hundreds of thousands of acres of blackened federal land, coupled with an aggressive forest restoration program aimed at minimizing future disasters.

It could provide economic opportunities while implementing an aggressive forest health improvement program for decades.

The time is now to look outside the box to implement new solutions to old problems. We must recognize that we can have our cake and eat it, too.

We can have exceptional water quality, abundant wildlife, flourishing fisheries and a host of other benefits, including economic opportunity through thoughtful forest management.

I encourage the crowd to pay attention to their elected officials and support those who support you, not simply with words but by their actions. Senator Conrad Burns is a great asset for Montanans.

His chairmanship of the Senate Interior Appropriations subcommittee, as well as his position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee gives Montanans a strong voice on multiple use issues and wise forest management. I know Conrad will continue to support these values and this heritage industry in our state.

Loggers ARE environmentalists. They care about the environment because they make their living from it. And if they do their work responsibly, their children and grandchildren can be loggers as well because timber is a replenishing resource. Some people seem to forget that.

Forest health is not about clear cuts. It's about active management of our lands by those who are professionals, professionals with years of on the ground experience and dirt under their fingernails -- not just those who sit in air conditioned buildings in far off places, who pontificate about what is good for families and communities with whom they may never interact or understand.

Not everyone wants to make a living in an office or in a city. Some of us want to make a living in the great outdoors. And just because we make our living off the land, doesn't mean we don't care about it-- or worse, that we are out to destroy the land. We, too, want a clean environment, a place to recreate and hunt and fish and just enjoy nature's beauty.

And we have science on our side. That is precisely how decisions regarding our forests should be made, not based on rhetoric. Healthy forests mean clean water, clean air, habitat protection and jobs-- good paying jobs that keep schools open and allow people to live the American dream-- even those--- and WHY NOT INCLUDE THOSE--- who are trying to make a living in the timber industry?

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