News Release
Healthy Forest Initiative
5/27/2003
Tod O'Hair
406-444-3111
tohair@state.mt.us
Monday: May 19, 2003
Governor Judy Martz is traveling to Washington, D.C., today (Monday) to attend a Healthy Forests Initiative gathering in the East Garden of the White House with President Bush and others on his administration’s Healthy Forest Initiative. The gathering is scheduled for Tuesday morning. The White House called late last week to invite Governor Martz, as a leader on forest health issues to join the President and members of his administration as they discuss the Healthy Forest Initiative.
Governor Martz, as chair of the Western Governors Association (WGA), will be hosting a WGA Healthy Forest Summit in Missoula on June l7, l8, and 19. Governor Martz made forest management her top priority for her tenure as WGA chair. Governor Martz also spoke highly of the President’s Healthy Forest Initiative in her State of the State address earlier this year and has made good forest management a priority of her administration.
Here’s what Governor Martz said in her State of the State on forest management: “As we work to strengthen our economy, we will continue to support our traditional industries, those that support our logging and mining families, our farmers and ranchers. We WILL NOT forget the industries that built this state, and we are working closely with President Bush to bring common sense back to forest management. We must manage our forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires. We will achieve that goal by giving the right tools to the forest managers and private businesses. In the process, we will bring back good logging jobs to communities like Hamilton and Stevensville, Seeley Lake and Frenchtown. As chair of the Western Governors Association, I am bringing a Healthy Forest Summit to Montana in June. Western governors will come together to focus on a path we should take to improve the health of our forests and the health of our communities.”
