Natural Resources
When COVID-19 kept millions of Americans home, many of us spent our free time checking off home improvement projects that had been on our lists for years. Updated shelves, a new garden shed, maybe even an addition to the kitchen – there was more time than ever to do it yourself. It wasn't just homeowners, either, as many restaurants constructed covered outdoor dining areas.
The two main benchmarks of environmental health are clean air and clean water. Healthy forests are critical for both. Unfortunately, years of catastrophic wildfires across the western United States have decimated many of our forests, turning critical wildlife habitats into ash and making it more difficult for trees to regenerate naturally.
To solve this problem – and prevent severe wildfires from happening in the first place – requires scientific forest management, coupled with aggressive reforestation goals. In turn, these efforts require a reliable, skilled workforce.
Anyone who lives in the Natural State knows that Arkansas is one of the nation's greatest forest regions, and one of the country's leading producers of timber, harvesting more than 24 million tons per year, worth an estimated $445 million to landowners.
What the U.S. doesn't fully know yet, however, is how Arkansas' forests, timber and wood products are changing the discussion surrounding the environment forever.
Conservation is inherently conservative. While the Left has radicalized the narrative on environmental issues, I'm here to set the record straight. A strong economy and a clean environment go hand in hand. I was proud to re-introduce my bill, the Trillion Trees Act this week as a part of House Republicans' energy innovation agenda. The Trillion Trees Act is an important step in supporting market-based solutions to climate issues that we can all get behind.
WASHINGTON - Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) joined Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Committee on Agriculture Ranking Member Glenn 'GT' Thompson (R-Penn.), House Committee on Appropriations Ranking Member Kay Granger (R-Texas), House Committee on Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.) and 67 other members in introducing the Trillion Trees Act of 2021.
We don't often think about modernizing the way that we plant trees. For generations, the process has remained the same: A seed falls to the ground, germinates, grows, sprouts branches and leaves, pulls carbon from the atmosphere, and releases oxygen.
But things are changing. Today, we have a much deeper understanding of the critical role trees play in our environment. We are also better than ever at managing our forests properly and keeping them healthy.
This week, I had the honor of hosting a group of Keystone XL Pipeline, agriculture, steel, energy, and construction workers to discuss the true cost of President Biden's energy policies. Recently, President Biden cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline permit and oil and gas leasing on federal lands, which put thousands of people instantly out of work and deprived our economy of a major investment-- all with the stroke of a pen. These men and women shared their stories on how the cancellation has affected them and their families personally, and their industries financially.
America is at a crossroads. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults now say that protecting the environment should be a top priority for the president and Congress, marking the first time in recent history in which environmental protection rivals the economy among the public's top policy priorities. Devastating wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have the public asking if there's more we can do to be stewards of our resources and environment. At the start of the 117th Congress, we have an opportunity to tackle these issues.
President Biden will "create millions of new jobs, including new opportunities in rural America [and] partner with rural communities to help them fully access federal resources." Or so the Biden-Harris Plan to Build Back Better in Rural America reads.
Yet as the adage goes, actions speak louder than words. President Biden's first actions in office have certainly spoken. The long-term impacts of his oil and natural gas leasing ban on federal lands and water are grim, to say the least.
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) announced that his chief of staff, Vivian Moeglein, will be leaving his personal office to join the House Committee on Natural Resources as its first female Republican staff director. Westerman will become the committee's ranking member in January 2021. Sarah Slocum Collins, a Fourth District native and senior manager of federal government relations for Tyson Foods Inc., will replace Moeglein as chief of staff. Westerman issued the following statement: