LETTER: WGA Director requests information & joint action on Forest Health in letter to Secretary Vilsack
August 23, 2013 -- Jim Ogsbury, WGA Executive Director, writes to Secretary Vilsack reiterating the Governors' requeest for information on where money has been spent and will be spent by the Forest Service to thin out overgrowth and dead tress in western forests to reduce wildfire threats.
August 23, 2013
Honorable Thomas J. Vilsack
Secretary
United States Department of Agriculture
Jamie L. Whitten Building
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20010
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
Thank you for your recent response to the Western Governors’ letter of April 16, 2013.
Governors share the responsibility for providing efficient and cohesive management of lands in the West. As emphasized in their April letter, the Governors have been concerned for some time that federal forest lands throughout the region are facing serious environmental stress affecting the health and vitality of Western ecosystems. These forests are overgrown; they exhibit all the symptoms of an unhealthy ecosystem; and they demand urgent attention.