50 



In another attempt to gauge general public opinion on this issue, we held two well- 

 publicized public meetings, one in Portland, Oregon, and the other here in Washington. 

 Attendance at the Portland meeting was good. Public comment there indicated unanimous 

 support for APHIS' attempt to establish regulations for the importation of logs and lumber; 

 differences were expressed as to the degree of restrictiveness in the regulations. We 

 convened a second meeting in Washington, DC, where no oral comments were presented. 



In addition to soliciting public comment on the proposed rule and holding two public 

 meetings, we also have developed a draft environmental induct statement which was 

 published 2 months ago. The draft EIS examines six alternatives of varying restrictiveness, 

 including a no action alternative. We received 34 written comments that express a variety of 

 points of view. We are in the process of preparing the final EIS now and expect it to be 

 published sometime this summer. 



WATinNAIFr 



The principal rationale behind our proposal was to protect the agricultural and natural 

 resources of this country by preventing the entry of foreign pests and diseases. 

 We gathered the best information available from industry, academia, environmental groups, 

 the Forest Service, and other government agencies and used that to arrive at a proposal we 

 believe is balanced and fair. 



Second, we strove to achieve a balance among the interested parties' views. We 



