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<br />WHEREAS, An Octoher 2000 United States Forest Service report, <br />entitled "Protecting People and Sustaining Resources...", confirmed the <br />conclusion of the 1999 General Accounting Office's report and further <br />warned that without increased restoration treatments, wildfire suppression <br />costs, natural resource losses, private property losses, and environmental <br />damage are certain to escalate as fuels continue to accumulate and more <br />acres become high risk; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, A June 2002 United States Forest Service report stated that <br />the agency was "so busy meeting procedural requirements...that it has <br />trouble fulfilling its historic mission: to sustain the health, diversity, and <br />productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of <br />present and future generations"; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, The United States Forest Service's failure to promptly and <br />efficiently implement forest management projects has contributed to <br />unnatural wildfire risks and the spread of insect and disease epidemics <br />across all of the national forests in Colorado; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, The citizens of Colorado are concerned about the risk of <br />catastrophic wildfire and the spread of insects and disease, and are <br />disturbed by the gridlock in federal decision-making that prevents <br />professional foresters, wildlife biologists, and other professionals from <br />doing their jobs; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Decades of fire suppression and passive management have <br />created overly dense, diseased, and fire-prone forests that are the result of <br />conflicting, contradictory, time consuming, and overly burdensome federal <br />land management procedures and processes; and <br /> <br />PAGE 2-HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 03-1020 <br />