The FY 1998 President's Budget proposes a government-wide contingency fund to cover various disasters including emergency firefighting. Second, we want to better ensure that we capitalize on opportunities to use management techniques that reduce catastrophic wildfires. The cost of reducing much of the fuels buildup before a wildfire occurs, pales when measured against the costs of putting out intense, fuel-driven wildfires. These are two significant improvements that address our financial and ecosystem needs, and I hope you will support us in this effort, as you have in the past. We are proposing a change in the current salvage sale fund so that funding we receive more closely reflects the type of work that we are doing in the field.
Active management is necessary to restore ecosystem health.
A separate, distinct account is proposed to fund ecosystem health and restoration projects. This is an important first step to provide funding for necessary watershed restoration work that is not directly tied to the timber receipts of each separate forest. I hope you can agree with our motivations and objectives. We must accelerate the restoration of our publicly owned lands and waters. This new fund draws from several existing sources and would begin fiscal year 1998 with 121 million dollars for restoration efforts.