CONSERVATION CORNER
Cochran Praised For Funding Healthy Forests Program
by James L. Cummins

Two years ago, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act passed both the House and Senate of the United States Congress. Senator Thad Cochran and Congressmen Roger Wicker, Bennie Thompson and Chip Pickering were co-sponsors of the bill. Congressman Thompson was the first member in the Nation of his party to co-sponsor the bill.

The Act, which was introduced based on President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative, is a comprehensive attempt to improve forest health. It would empower public land managers with tools to implement scientifically-based management practices, while establishing new conservation programs on private lands.

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act's premise is simple and clear. Given the massive scale of the threat that catastrophic wildfire, disease and insect infestation pose to the health of pristine forest ecosystems, threatened and endangered species, air quality, water quality and the safety of thousands of communities, it streamlines the process for forest thinning and fuel reduction projects without shortcutting the public participation process. Those that conceptualized and supported the legislation had no idea that a hurricane named Katrina would result in the need of every title of this important piece of legislation.

For private landowners, the Healthy Forests Reserve Program will be the most important. It is a conservation initiative that would restore one million acres of rare forest ecosystems that are critical to, amongst other things, recovering threatened/endangered species. The longleaf pine ecosystem in South Mississippi will be a major beneficiary.

The bill will develop an incentive-based program encouraging the utilization of small diameter trees, salvage harvests and thinnings. This will decrease the oversupply of pulp on the market, which is significantly contributing to low market prices.

It will also increase research on losses caused by the southern pine beetle in the Southern United States. The bill will establish a program that uses satellite technology to monitor forest stands, with a special emphasis on hardwood forest types.

This bill would not have passed if it was not for the leadership, hard work and dedication of Senator Thad Cochran. Someone once said, "A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the quality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. In the end, leaders are much like eagles...they don't flock, you find them one at a time." If that definition of leader was in Webster's Dictionary, Senator Cochran's picture would be beside it.

Mississippi will use every title of the bill, especially the Healthy Forests Reserve Program. In a recently passed appropriations bill, Senator Cochran added $5 million, although the House reduced its funding to $2.5 million. This program will help greatly in restoring South Mississippi's forests, especially longleaf pine, while providing needed funds to landowners.