Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 11, 2011

CONTACT: Hannah Loy   202-225-2315

Rep. Gosar Advocates for Initiatives that will bring Forest Jobs to Round Valley at Town Hall  

Reps. Gosar and Pearce discussed short-term and long-term forest health solutions with constituents in Arizona and New Mexico affected by the Wallow Fire      

EAGAR, AZ – Yesterday, U.S. Congressmen Paul Gosar (AZ-01) hosted a town hall in Round Valley, alongside neighboring Congressman Steve Pearce (NM- 02), to hear from their constituents and to advocate for short-term and long-term job producing ecological restoration initiatives. At the town hall, nearly four hundred residents from eastern Arizona and western New Mexico offered their ideas and expressed their frustrations with past federal forest policies.

Congressmen Gosar and Pearce highlighted legislation they introduced alongside Congressman Flake (AZ-06), H.R. 2562 the Wallow Fire Recovery and Monitoring Act, which puts forth an expedited, but sound environmental process for the removal of hazardous, dead and dying trees in the areas affected by the Wallow Fire. The removal of fire-damaged trees will help prevent future fires by reducing hazardous fuels on the ground, improve the overall health and recovery of the forests, and put people in the region back to work by putting the salvaged wood to good use. Under the H.R. 2562, the removal projects must be carried out within 18 months following its enactment to ensure the work is done while the wood is still salvageable. 

Concurrently, the Congressman is pressing the Forest Service to utilize its existing authorities under public law to continue salvage work, in turn putting people back to work in the forest. After touring the Wallow Fire area for the third time in three months, Gosar reaffirmed his call for swift action by the Forest Service to protect human life and property and mitigate further damage to timber resources and the environment. 

After hearing from constituents for nearly two hours, Congressman Gosar closed the town hall by highlighting an Arizona long-term forest health solution in the works, the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4-FRI). The Congressman asserted that 4-FRI has the potential to be the largest and most ambitious restoration effort in the country, thinning and restoring 2.5 million acres of ponderosa pine forests on the Apache-Sitgraves, Coconino, Kaibab, and Tonto National Forests. 

The 4FRI proposal calls for the Forest Service to partner with private industry to restore our forests, ultimately reducing damaging wildfire impacts, as well as provide forest jobs, markets for wood products, and ecological restoration.  He commended the involved County Supervisors, local officials, the timber industry, and environmental groups who have come together to move this important initiative forward, and reaffirmed his commitment to working with those entities to ensure 4FRI’s success. 

Congressman Paul A. Gosar, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, represents Arizona’s First Congressional District.  For additional information on his positions regarding forest health, visit http://gosar.house.gov.

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