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CONCLUSION 



If this Committee is truly interested in maintaining the small business forest-products companies 

 in the Black Hills, then it is critical that it support a fmal forest plan that will meet the demands 

 of the existing forest-products industry. Since a legitimate difference of opinion on the quality 

 of data being used to develop the Forest Plan exists, we request this committee intercede on 

 behalf of the small business operators, and convince the Forest Service to open their planning 

 records for review. The survival of both small and large sawmills within the Black Hills does 

 not hinge on more wilderness or fancy programs to reduce the procedural blockades of the current 

 timber-sale contract, it hinges on an adequate, consistent and dependable supply of timber from 

 the forest which is predicated on what the land can produce, not what the agency thinks is 

 politically correct or acceptable. 



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