95 



Mr. Hamburg. I would just maintain, Mr. Campbell, that given 

 the information that we are getting now on successful reproduction 

 of the murrelet, not on how many nests we can count, but on how 

 many murrelets are actually returning and we are starting to get 

 scientific evidence to the effect that this bird highly prefers return- 

 ing to a certain nesting site and will return to that site again and 

 again and just given the overall lack of information that we have 

 that you are asking and the company is asking that we take a sub- 

 stantial risk in taking more marbled murrelet habitat and in addi- 

 tion to that, I just want to call back the testimony that we had ear- 

 lier to the effect that we are not simply talking about marbled 

 murrelets. 



Marbled murrelets are an indicator species for many other old- 

 growth dependent animals and there are a whole range of problems 

 with endangered species that we need to protect this kind of prop- 

 erty in order to maintain. 



Mr. Campbell. Well, we agree with you on the 4,500 acres. 



Mr. Hamburg. I know you do. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman, 



Mr. POMEROY. It is nice to see you agreeing. The Chair will exer- 

 cise the prerogative of the Chair. I will call on myself at this point 

 for the second round. I apologize. I have a 3 o'clock appointment 

 and would have sought the permission of Chairman Rose were he 

 here. I hope you don't think I am taking unfair advantage. 



Forget that. We will call on Mr. Pombo for this round. 



Mr. PoMBO. If you want to go first, that is fine. 



Mr. PoMEROY. We are going to run out of chairmen here. We will 

 continue right on through the round and it will be our concluding 

 round. 



Mr. POMBO. I will get back to Mr. Dixon if I might for a few min- 

 utes and talk about your local economy and some of the statements 

 that were made previously about how the timber industry affects 

 your local economy. 



In your opening statement, you said that it was your opinion 

 that it is a major part of your local economy. Could you expand on 

 that in terms of — well, what I am leading toward is, are there pro- 

 visions for retraining workers, loggers who have lost their jobs. 

 What are they going to do if there is no forest industry there, if 

 there is no timber industry there? 



Mr. Dexon. Well, that is a good question, Congressman. That is 

 one that we would like an answer to. We don't think that retrain- 

 ing laid off timber employees from jobs that are well paying that 

 allow a worker to support his family and to educate his children, 

 we have no idea what the retraining program would be. 



Previously programs for displaced timberworkers in Humboldt 

 County, to the best of my knowledge in talking with both private 

 industry council and people who have been offered the retraining, 

 have not been productive and really have not solved the problem 

 of what you do with displaced timberworkers. The concept of put- 

 ting these people to work in habitat programs, stream restoration, 

 tree planting, those kinds of things, while cosmetically sounds 

 good, it is not a program that is ongoing. 



Many of the acres that are being discussed in this proposal have 

 already been reforested by the company itself. The company and I 



