National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Rouzer). I also want to thank my former committee chairman on the House Agriculture Committee, now the ranking member, Mr. Peterson, for his support of this bill, as well as Chairman Conaway of the House Agriculture Committee.
Mr. Speaker, in the national forests, especially in areas where there have been bark beetle damage, the trees are starting to fall across the trails. I have talked to outfitters who are taking pack trips into the national forests. They are only in there for 2 or 3 days, and when they try to get out they have to chop their way out because so many trees have fallen across the trails, even while they are in the forest. So this maintenance backlog is getting bigger.
Mr. Speaker, it makes such sense, practically speaking, when we have a huge budget deficit, to maximize the use of volunteers in the national forests to help maintain these trails. Now, they will be able to avail themselves of workers comp, and that is part of the reason that it has taken this bill such a long time to get to the floor. But it came out of the Agriculture Committee unanimously. It is one of the most bipartisan bills in this entire Congress. It has 86 cosponsors in the House and 23 in the Senate.
I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz), who is a cosponsor of this bill, for his work. I am hoping he will tell the tale that he encountered this summer when he was hiking in the West. More than 50 diverse recreation conservation groups wanted a way to increase volunteer efforts in our national forests, including the National Association of Counties.
Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of additional provisions I want to highlight in this bill. It directs a study be done on utilizing fire crews for maintenance work during off seasons for wildfire, which is a great way for them to maximize, and for us to maximize, their skills in the forests. And it also requires the Secretary of Agriculture to identify 9 to 15 priority areas throughout the country to incorporate volunteers and to increase trail maintenance.
This bill has broad support. It will produce opportunities for young people to volunteer in our forests. It will allow outfitters and guides to offset some of their permit fees through work on trail maintenance performed by the permit holders to construct, improve, or maintain National Forest System trails, trailheads, or developed sites under supervision of our National Park Service.
This is kind of a motherhood and apple pie bill, Mr. Speaker, and it has been my pleasure to work with Mr. Walz and the other proponents of this bill to bring it to the floor this afternoon.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank Mr. Rouzer for allowing me to do something I should have done, but Mr. Walz did it for me. That is to thank my staff, especially Jimmy Ward, for all of his hard work on this bill. He made sure that we continued to be moving this bill forward in his helping us to identify cosponsors and working with the scoring process, which is what brings us here today; so I want to say a particular thank you to my staff.
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