Congressional Record—Senate S5454
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S5454 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 21, 1996 the Senior Girl Scout Challenge, as If lightning were strike here now, short forests, they believe that’s the way they well as design and implement a Girl flames would creep along the forest floor. should be. Some are partial to the kinds of Scout Gold Award service project. A The fire would consume grass, twigs and pine wildlife the thickets attract, too. plan for fulfilling these requirements is needle litter. The flames would singe tree But as the Lone fire proved, nature has a trunks, but wouldn’t get hot enough to kill vengeance when it’s disturbed. created by the Senior Girl Scout and is the towering pines. Then, when there was no ‘‘The natural area (becomes) so unnatural carried out through close cooperation grass left to burn, the flames would go out. in its density and fuel accumulation, it be- between the girl and an adult Girl That’s the way it was for hundreds of gins to present a hazard,’’ Fule said.∑ Scout volunteer. years. Fire was friendly to the forest, Fule f The named Girl Scouts provided the said. It cleared out scraggly brush and new following community services for their saplings every few years, allowing the older CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF DICK Gold Award projects: trees to thrive without competition for CLURMAN water and light. Miss Cady completed a beautification But this is the forest of the past. Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, yes- project involving landscaping and Today, national forests like Arizona’s terday morning, May 20, 1996, ‘‘a gath- painting at Carolyn Park Elementary Coconino, Kaibab and Apache-Sitgreaves are ering to celebrate the life of Dick School. much different places. They’re so dense with Clurman’’ took place at the Beth-El Miss Claverie produced an extensive spindly young pines, forestry experts call the Chapel of the Temple Emanu-El in New resource guide for recycled crafts and cluster of trees ‘‘dog-hair ticktets.’’ York City. William F. Buckley, Jr. led Fire in those tickets equals almost certain environmental awareness. destruction. The trees of different sizes form off with a wonderfully moving tribute, Miss Cancienne developed a resource stair steps for the fire to climb to the largest which ended, ‘‘It will require the bal- booklet on disability awareness includ- pines. ance of my own lifetime to requite ing an activities box. That’s why, forestry experts say, Arizona what he gave to me.’’ He was followed Miss James founded a chapter of Stu- is at risk of the worst wildfires this by Osborn Elliott, a lifelong friend and dents Against Drunk Driving (SADD) millenium. fellow journalist. There followed equal- at Benjamin Franklin High School. Never before has there been such accumu- ly singular tributes from Harry Evans, lation of fire fuel. Add to that some of the Miss O’Flynn designed an equestrian driest weather in recorded history and the H.D.S. Greenway, David Halberstam, competition for disabled children. danger is extreme. Phyllis Newman, who sang a Gershwin Miss Raborn educated her commu- Years of ecological disturbance have tune, Hugh Sidey, Mike Wallace, Bar- nity about exchange student programs brought the West’s forests to this point, Fule bara Walters, and then the Clurman and her family hosted two exchange said. family. Rabbi Richard S. Chapin and students. The trouble started in Arizona in 1883 when Cantor Howard Nevison provided lit- Misses Adams, Cummins, Reites and the transcontinental railroad was finished. The state was connected. People arrived. urgy and liturgical music. Schiffman were a team for a restora- They brought cows. It was indeed a life to celebrate and tion project of Storyland at City Park. The lush grass and wildflowers on the for- to remember. I ask that Mr. Buckley’s I believe these Girl Scouts should re- est floors were perfect for grazing. Cows ate and Mr. Elliott’s remarks be printed in ceive the public recognition due them to the bare ground. the RECORD, along with a fine obituary for their significant services to their With the grass gone, the fires stopped. by Lawrence Van Gelder which ap- communities and to their country.∑ When pines dropped their seeds, they took peared in the New York Times. root. The trees grew in thick, but not very f big. There wasn’t enough water for any one The material follows: UNNATURAL CONDITIONS SET tree to thrive. Now, when a spark hits the REMARKS BY WM. F. BUCKLEY, JR. AT THE STAGE FOR NATURAL DISASTER thickets, the world forest is doomed. MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR RICHARD M. CLURMAN ‘‘If a fire came through this year, this tree Three years ago, one evening in July, he ∑ Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask that would almost certainly die,’’ Fule said of a asked whether I’d cross the ocean again in the following newspaper article be ponderosa that has stood for at least 300 1995, what would have been the fifth such printed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. years. ‘‘Not only this one, but all its neigh- venture, done at five-year intervals begin- The article follows: bors.’’ ning in 1975. ‘‘I’m prepared to go,’’ he told What took hundreds of years for nature to me. I suppose I smiled; it was dark on the ve- UNNATURAL CONDITIONS SET STAGE FOR build could be destroyed in minutes, he said. NATURAL DISASTER randa when he spoke. I told him I doubted For most of this century, the U.S. Forest my crew could be mobilized for one more [From the Tribune, May 17, 1996] Service’s policy was to put out fires. Fule such trip, and just the right crew was indis- (By Sherry Boss) said. That policy interrupted nature’s long- pensable. He had done with me two Atlantic FLAGSTAFF—Peter Fule walks through the term plans, he said. crossings, one Pacific crossing. He was an in- past and finds comfort there. ‘‘People have always wanted to control na- stant celebrity for his ineptitudes at sea, He is safe in a stand of 400-year-old ture and remake it for human needs and done in high spirit with a wonderful, per- ponderosas. Wildfire is unlikely to touch this human goals,’’ he said. sistent incomprehension of what was the job Years of fire suppression policy led to the 8 acres of forest north of Flagstaff. Fule and at hand. He was the object of hilarious ridi- devastating Lone fire at four Peaks 35 miles his colleagues have restored it to the way it cule in my son’s published journal—and he east of Phoenix, said Julie Stromberg, asso- was in 1876 in hopes of learning a lesson. loved it all, even as Christopher loved him; ciate research professor at Arizona State The wind is gusty here and rain a strang- even when, while discoursing concentratedly University’s Center for Environmental Stud- er—perfect conditions for a sweeping blaze on matters of state, he would drop his ciga- ies. Fires have been put out as soon as they like the one that ravaged 61,000 acres at Four rette ash into Christopher’s wine glass, or start, allowing the vegetation to accumu- Peaks this month. very nearly set fire in the galley when trying late. But unlike most of Arizona’s forests this to light the stove. He thrived on the cheerful ‘‘If you don’t do frequent burns or con- one is not a tinderbox at the mercy of a ciga- raillery of his companions, but on one occa- trolled burns, you’re going to have a cata- rette butt or car engine spark, said Fule, a sion thought to say to me, in a voice strophic fire,’’ Stromberg said. senior research specialist at Northern Ari- The problem isn’t easily solved now. It’s unaccustomedly low, ‘‘I’m good at other zona University’s School of Forestry. too late to let nature take its course, Fule things.’’ The grass under Fule’s feet and the ample said. There’s no choice but to put out forest He hardly needed to remind me. Yes, and distance between trees in peace of mind. fires, he said. from everything he was good at he drew les- One day in 1994, students and employees ‘‘If all the fire crews walked away, by to- sons, little maxims of professional and extra- for NAU, the U.S. Forest Service and the log- morrow, the whole state would be in professional life of great cumulative impact, ging industry sawed down more than 7,000 flames,’’ he said. instantly imparted to all his friends, at the new trees in the Fort Valley Experimental Fule hopes the solution lies in a combina- least suggestion from them, or from their Forest, short eight miles north of Flagstaff. tion of cutting and burning. situation, that they needed help, or instruc- All that remains now are the 480 pines that Official will start a fire every three years tion. It is awesome to extrapolate from one’s were standing in pre-settlement days. Work- in the cleared-out experimental forest to own experience of his goodness the sum of ers brought the density down from more imitate the natural fire cycle that occurred what he did for others. than 1,000 trees per acre to 62—closer to the between 1630 and 1876. When Oz Elliott, on Shirley’s behalf, asked way it was before cattle disturbed the for- A similar cut-and-burn project is under me to say something today I went right to est’s ecosystem. way on a larger scale at Mount Turmbull on my desk but I found it impossible to imagine ‘‘It was a neat feeling to see this being 3,700 acres north of the Grand Canyon.