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Statement of Diana M. EDIboxi 



President of the Chahalk Basin Fisheries Task Force 



Presented to tha UJS. House of Rep TOnrm tattves' 



Fisheries Managamant Sub-Cammi ttae 



Merchant Marine and Flsharlaa Committee 



July 14, 1993 



Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Good Afternoon. I am Diane Ellison, 

 President of the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force and owner of Ellison Timber and 

 Properties. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to testify in support of 

 implementation of the Chehalis Fisheries Resource Restoration Program. I especially 

 want to thank Representative Unsoeld and her staff for their sensitivity to the needs of 

 our fisheries resource and their thoughtful oversight as this program has developed. 



I am the fifth generation of a timber family. Since 1884, my family members have been 

 employed in the timber Industry. For the past 110 years we have been tree farmers in 

 the Kamilchee, Wynoochee and Wlahkah Valley's in Grays Harbor and Mason Counties 

 of Washington State. 



In the ten years that I have manage my families tree farm, I have managed five 

 separate harvests and replanted over 130,000 trees. During this time of logging, 

 replanting and managing my forest land, I have experienced intense, and sometimes 

 painful, change. 



Change so dramatic that my entire paradigm of reality has been transformed. How and 

 Why has that change come about? 



A few years ago I got involved with an organization saving wild salmon called "Long 

 Live the Kings". As I sat on the river bank at night with my childhood fishing buddies - 

 broodstocldng - I became enmeshed in an effort to save our "wild salmon" from 

 extinction. 



