Congress. Congressman, we continue to watch the western states burn this week and you went to the floor yesterday to talk about the importance of forest esmanagement. Could you walk through what that means and what we are and arent doing for our western forests right now. Guest good morning, great to be with you. Forest management is something i love to talk about being a forrester and love to practice for history. A scene how it works. What we are talking about is applying science to make the forest healthy and resilient. In the life of climate effects is more important now than ever to apply these concepts to Management Practices to the forest and i am proposing in the trillion trees act as part of that bill i filed, for areas on public plans and these are also crossed over into private lands that we really need to focus on, especially in these fire prone areas where we are seeing higher weve got all the physics and youve got fuel, oxygen and heat and what we can do is manage the fuel part of it. Wildland urban places where they are subject to not just catastrophic wildfire but death and property destruction and we saw what happened in the campfire before we saw billions of dollars in Property Damage so these are areas that need to be triaged and managed d immediatey and we should have done it years ago along with the wildland urban interface we need to have transportation corridors where you have vehicles going back and forth were more humans interact and you can get sparks off of chains dragging and unfortunately throwing cigarettes out the window or whatever and starts a fire. We made demands in those areas but we need to manage the transmission corridors where youve got power lines and we know that is how a lot of these fires startdo and we need to management on critical water because this forests are so important for air quality and they are the best tool we have to manage Water Quality and our founders recognize that the importance of forestry to air and water. These are the places that they made the most work and needed immediately. After that we can move or further out into the forest but im not talking about [inaudible] but talking about typically dating from below and you cant be too generalized in this but taking out smaller stuff entries that are too closely spaced and giving them the space they need to get sunlight and water and to not have the lighter fuels they get into the crown and because the tremendous fires. Host for those of us here in the east coast how do you cite a forest fire . How much is new technology versus boots and axes on the ground, could you take us to the typical plan to fight a wild fire . Guest the best way to fight a wildfire is prevented in the first place and that is why Good Management does. Can stack the deck in your favor if you put these Forest Management places in place and if youve been in the wildland urban interface and other areas and you create fire breaks so the fire drops to the ground and you can put fires out with more conventional boots on the ground type approaches but firefighter becomes a Huge Industry in this country. We now got 747 tinkers and other large aircraft and using drones with very sophisticated and we can be saving all that money and putting it towards more Forest Management and prevention. The prevention is worth a pound of cure and that is magnified over and over when we talk about our forest. Host when firefighters go in to fight the wildfires what are they actually doing andnd we are trying to clear away fuel ahead of the fire or are we trying to redirect the fires but what is happening there . Ng guest they use different approaches but you heard the adage you fight firees with fire and sometimes you want to put a bad fire so your burning into the wind so that when the fired. Is burning with the wind it is there and not fuel but the firefighters, they tried to achieve so theyre trying to clear a path, burned backfires and do things to get the fuel out of the way because really that is the only thing that we can control and when these big fires get going they create their own heat and you get the winds that add more oxygen and again if you look at the physics of fuel and oxygen and heat so the thing that we can control and try to work on is mostly on fuel. Some of the stuff you put on it from the air takes the oxygen out but that is the main tool and the defined fighting fire. Host fighting fires, Bruce Westerman, congressman joining us, republican from arkansas taking your questions, 202 7488000, 202 7488001 republicans, independents 202 7488002 and out of brooklyn, democrat, haley yuan with congressman westerman. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im tired of that smokey the bail only you can stop forest fires and this force management malarkey and it sounds like bs. Clearly, rising temperatures could not have anything to do with turning the west into a massive tinder box ready with a spark and what we can do is control fossil fuel emissions starting with eliminating fossil fuels on the taxpayer dime about 600 billion of the budget. Look, republicans used to be [inaudible] but now its all this wavering between denial and skepticism and god will save us and the climate is big and a cycle and all this malarkey but clearly you have to do something about Climate Change andco republicans refused to recognize the reality of that with all their equivocation. Host congressman. Gi guest thank you for bringing up the point about climate. I love to discuss climate and debate that and it is part of the problem and something we need to address and our forests are a big part of the solution in that and when we look at what is happening with climate if you look at what we know from polarized caps and the amount of carbon in the atmosphere pre Industrial Revolution in the modern time it didnt get above 300 parts per million and we saw in the 1950s and we started samplingly Carbon Dioxide as to why the carbon got over 300 parts per million and now we are over 400 parts a million so there is no scientific doubt that we are putting more Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere so how do we get that out and theres a lot of things we need to do with new fuels and we need to have more innovation so that we can continue to produce the energy we need and balance that with reducing carbon going into the atmosphere but if you look at the tree there is one thing photosynthesis takes that Carbon Dioxide and stores the carbon and releases oxygen for us to breathe and that would stores the carbon better than anything we could event to store carbon so if you use those the word sustainably and that has been done a lot of different places you can create carbon reservoirs and New Buildings you are building so i think we can address the climate issue long term and there are a lot of things thatt have to happen and cant happen overnight just like Climate Change doesnt happen overnight but we can start working on those policies and at the same time we can immediately start doing things to make the forest healthy that are also good for the climate. Host you mention your trillion trees act. When you talk on the floor yesterday morning we were talking about planting trees and some of the wrong ways we diday that so how we should be planting trees and specifically not doing it all at once as they all grow old all at once when we try to plant new forests. Guest where the forest fires have gone through we would want to plant those forests at the same time so we get trees and you can manage them for uneven aged management over time but when you regenerate or start that forest it will probably be an even age forest. It is not just a simple essay and plant trees because you get a lot of natural and trees that sprout up where the fire has been without anybody planting but as we look across the country and across the world it has become sitespecific. The bottomlands of arkansas where we have wetlands we are trying to restore you would plant multiple species of different kinds of hardwoods and over time he would manage that for anan uneven age of forest. The science is there and we know how to do it. It is not that we dont have the knowledge or the ability or Research Behind how to do this but it is getting the system in place to make it happen and what is happening a lot on our federal lands right now is you have competing interests for rights on the land and because everybody wants a certain right that the land provides you end up nobody doing anything and that isan the biggest problem wh our federal lands and our forest is that no management is happening and the management that is happening his hands off approach and is like putting the fire out depending on when it starts. You talk about smokey the bears name should have been bernie, controlled bernie bear within a much better approach to keeping our forest healthy. Host terry out of virginia, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. I was calling because i had a recent trip to colorado and we were up in the rio grande wilderness area and different types ofs areas and the forests were dead. Most of the mountainsides andmo mountains that we looked at and hike through most of the pine forests were all dead. As far as i could see. I looked up on the department of forestry webpage and they said [inaudible] had done all the damage but what can be done with those forests . They said theyre waiting to catch on fire. Guest terry, thats a great analysis you made there and i appreciate you bringing that up. Again, it did not have to be that way. The forests are a lot like humans. If you get stressed and your immune system weakens and when disease comes along it attacks you easier and you are not as resistant to it. Weve seen these forests, especially in colorado, where they are way over and you got too many trees per acre and they are competing for all the resources and the climate rise and temperatures rise when there are less water and then they get stressed and when they are stressed you get the insects and the diseases that move in and the beatles come in there and killed trees and now youre talking about a tinderbox. What we should be doing is taking a proactive approach to restoring these lands and taking some of that dead timber out and getting new growth and managing it so all the trees that are there have a chance to survive and compete. It is so much common sense that we really have a hard time making it happen. Host ten minutes before the house is scheduled to come in. They come in at 9 00 a. M. Eastern this morning. Of course we will take viewers there for gavel to gavelie coverage when they do come inth but until then congressman Bruce Westerman joining us and taking your questions. Alyssa writes in on twitter, what are your views of the Green New Deal . Guest well i think there is a better approach then a regulatory approach. If you look at how you achieveap environmental success you either do it regulatory or you do it with an incentive based system. I think the great thing about america is the free market has always worked in the free market will work on environmentalism as well as it works in other areas. We are seeing a shift towards this. Just yesterday the Business Roundtable which i believe they represent about 7. 5 trillion in revenue in the u. S. Economy all the comedies that are a part of that and they put out there Climate Policy and they are looking at what do we do to make a better environment and a Better Climate and youre starting to see petroleum companies, bp and shell have announced they will reduce the amount of fossil fuels they produce and they are trying to transition more into Energy Company so that is exciting because youve got not only a lot of capital that can be invested but a lot of really in mind that can come up with innovation and solutions. Instead of doing more of a political environmentalism where you say you must do this or you cant do that lets release the free market and let people come up with ideas to make the environment better and also make the economy better and there is a lot of real promising things out there and that is the legislation and leadership i want to show in congress. Host line for democrats, good morning. Host we go to linn out of june lake, california. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. I live in the middle of the International Forest with dead timber everywhere and my husband awas 35 year timber contractor o we are very familiar with the tinderbox out there especially through the, i heard someone talking about colorado but through tahoe and we fly over you samiti and there is so much Natural Resource out there that is ready to be harvested. It seems impossible. I love what you are saying because we tried to work withed the Forest Service and it seems like their hands are so tied anthat we cant do this or thatr they try to start a project an Environmental Group will challenge or start a petition to end the project. So we are burning that air quality and as far as Climate Control or Climate Crisis everyone cries about it but nobody parks their car. If everyone took the drywall off their walls they would see would. You know, it is like as soon as you are ready to give up the luxuries of fossil fuel through inoking and driving and all the things that provide, maybe then you canan put your money where your mouth is but in the meantime i just love what you are saying as a citizen and i would love to see some sort of management. You cant preserve land. It needs to be managed. I would like to follow you on your work. I appreciate those kind comments. It is just common sense and applying science. You talk about our federal land managers with the u. S. Forest service and those organizations were put in place to bring professional to manage our federal lands and its not that they dont know how to manage them but oftentimes their hands are tied and this idea ofde competing for the land and trying to do political environmentalism so just an illustration before service will put out a plan to do management and someone will sue them and go to [inaudible] the plan get stopped so no management, no human management happens but management happens because they are constantly in a state of flood and it calls for the no action approach and the forest constantly change. The tabled come to and not an agree we could see a lot Better Success on our forests and across all land management. Nd that is the policy and pushing for here in congress and i think we will sit down and talk rashly about it with republicans, defendants and we can all agree on that. Host ubthird caller wanted o follow your work so you can follow his handle, at westerman. He she brought up at term that viewers might not be familiar with. Guest is the National Policy act and it is the process of federal land managers go through when they prepare managementge plan and its done with good intentions just like the clean air act, clean water act and endangered species act and all t of those rules were put out with good intentions but also provide a mechanism for somebody that may not have an interest in timber and the land that has an interest in Outdoor Recreation and i dont want you touching the timber so i will sue you through nema and get the project and in reality if you look at the science sound Forest Management helps for recreation and for wildlife and if we have healthy forests it is a win for everyone. There is no downside to a healthy forest. Get clean air, clean water, better Wildlife Habitat and you get a beautiful vistas and you can have a Rural Economy that drives off the resources and the Renewable Resources that come off that land. I would ask people who are filing these suits that are there for the air quality is sor bad and how is that working for you. Look at the habitat for endangered species and you might while a student stop a Management Plan and how is that working for those endangeredho species when the fire stop and the rains, and mudslides start how does that do for Water Quality. We need to have an honest discussion about those things. Host is that when you meant when you set on the house floor, if trees could talk they would ask you to stop loving us so much. Guest yeah, we are loving our trees to death. I may treat lover. Forestry and threes are so fascinating to me and my wife tells calls me the tree nerd but i realize you got to but discipline in their lives and go out and manage the forests and give them a chance to survive and im not [inaudible] but i do want to speak on behalf of the trees and it is our responsibility to be good stewards of them. Host time for a couple calls before the house comes in at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Washington, out of [inaudible], washington. Sorry, i probably butchered th that. Caller good morning. I lived in california 19601994 in the way i described the weather to people is sun, wind and fire. That is all we experienced paid sun, wind and fire. It happens every year. We took a trip and went through yosemite a few years ago andyo because of a beetle that was harvesting on the trees there were so many dead trees and there was a lot of logging going on and they were planting the healthy trees and leaving the tender there. I talked to people the other day and said why doesnt the federal government establish a body where they hire people. Im not talking about [inaudible] because theres a whole another set of problems with prisoners in the forest but why doesnt the federal government hire people, it would not take much of a College Education to have people, you know, federal employees to go out on these dead floors and pick up what is lying on these forest floors to clean them out and then cut down the trees that are dead an