Montana Governor Judy Martz
Chair, Western Governors Association 

Remarks to the WGA Forest Health Summit

June 19, 2003

For many years, Western governors have been at the forefront in advocating and developing policies that would reduce the risks of wildland fire to both our communities and to the environment. 

But it was the 2000 fire season – one of the worst in 50 years - - that provided the momentum for all the parties to come together to address this issue.  In that year alone, 8.4 million acres – 945,519… nearly one million of them… right here in Montana - - were burned.  The cost?  More than two billion federal dollars just to bring the fires under control.

At the behest of the Western Governors, Congress called on the Administration to partner with us to develop a strategy to improve wildfire management and to restore the health of our forests and rangelands. 

We now have a strategy.  And we have an implementation plan.  These documents were created and agreed to by a diverse set of interest - - by people and entities not known for being on the same side of the issue.

Many of you who worked to develop these invaluable blueprints are here today.  I commend you for your commitment and excellent work.  And today, I challenge you and everyone here to go the next step.

These documents are, as I say, blueprints.  It is now up to communities across the West to help craft locally driven measures to get the job done.  And this Forest Health Summit can and will serve as the catalyst to make that happen.

Progress can be made if we work together to recommend ways we can get community-based projects underway sooner rather than later.

Our goals are to:

• Improve the health of our forests and reduce the risks of wildland fires.
• Stabilize those communities that depend on the forests for their economic well being.
• Evaluate those governmental policies that may need revision to best meet those goals.
• Evaluate how science and technology might be better used on the ground to address forest health issues.
• And finally, improve the network for communication and collaboration among governments and forest health constituencies.

This is a tall order, but a challenge I know we are all up to, and I look forward to the results this afternoon.