Congressman Dusty Johnson brings colleagues from California, Georgia to forestry panel in Spearfish

Dusty Johnson is the lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Dakota. Despite this, he brought a couple of his colleagues and friends to the House to see the Black Hills and share their opinions on how the management of the forest could be improved.

Johnson was joined for a panel on forestry in Spearfish Saturday by Representative Doug LaMalfa of California and Representative Austin Scott of Georgia. In their opening remarks, both Republican congressmen spoke highly of Johnson. For LaMalfa, proper forest management is an important issue, he has seen three towns in the district he represents destroyed by wildfires.

“The town of Canyon Dam, entirely gone,” said LaMalfa. “I was there five minutes before it left. The orange flames in the mirror was something I’ll never forget.” The town was set ablaze in the Dixie Fire of 2021, which was the second largest in California history. The three Congressmen each spoke about their desire to prevent a similar disaster in the Black Hills.

“If you’re gonna manage that forest to avoid the pine beetle, if you’re gonna manage that forest to avoid fire, you have got to have these hardworking men and women that go into that forest and harvest that timber,” Johnson explained. The Congressmen want to see better results from timber harvests because forest services have received the largest amount of federal funding to date under the Biden administration.