42 



saying they do not, and that is really what you are going to try to 

 get clarified? 



Mr. Mayr. It is more than the Forest Service, but it is all in the 

 Department of Agriculture. The loan guarantee, I think they are on 

 the fourth floor and the Department of Agriculture is on the sec- 

 ond. I mean, they are in the same building. For one agency to say, 

 we did not know you depended on our timber sales for this loan, 

 that is kind of mind-boggling. 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. It is kind of bad to change all their 

 minds right now, after, of course. 



Mr. Mayr. I am convinced that our having those timber sales 

 under contract and the markets for those logs were the reason the 

 loan was approved. 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. You would not have gotten the loan 

 if you had not had a supply. 



Mr. Mayr. Exactly. 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. Nobody else is getting loans out 

 there unless they have supply, you are right. 



Mr. Mayr. Right. And that provided the bridge for the transition 

 that everybody was telling us, both the environmental community, 

 the administration was telling, you have to change to second 

 growth. That is what we did. We were written up at the time as 

 a progressive company for doing the right thing. It is just that 

 when you have a plan that complicated, you cannot pull a part of 

 it out. 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. It was not done in the dark, by any 

 means, for the members of this committee. 



Mr. Mayr. No. 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. It was done very clearly. In fact, I 

 feel that you were encouraged into it and then left high and dry. 

 It brings up cynicism for our government. No wonder not too many 

 folks want to work with the government, if they dump you after 

 they have encouraged. 



We need the 170 jobs. It is not all in my district. It is right above 

 it and part of it is mine, but I cannot imagine what 170 jobs' loss 

 is going to do in that area. 



We will do what we can do to try to get the administration to 

 understand, maybe just tell them it is a Democrat county. That 

 might help in an election year. 



Mr. Mayr. Yes. 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. But encourage them through that 

 process. But I do not think they realize the impact. They say, oh, 

 170. We have more than that on one floor in the White House. 

 They do not think about that many employees, but it basically will 

 devastate that community. 



Mr. Mayr. Yes, it will. 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. Mr. Geisinger, one thing that I 

 have been interested in since I have been here is the misconcep- 

 tion — so I am premising this with my bias, somewhat — ^but with 

 the Option 9 numbers, a lot of people got the impression, if you 

 would listen to the press back here, we were going to shave the 

 hills. That would leave no old growth and we would literally have 

 nothing left but bald hills in the Northwest. 



