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L Introduction 



Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, my name is Gerry Bendix. I am president 

 of Hi-Ridge Lumber Company located in Yreka, California. I appreciate the opportunity 

 to testify before you today to share with you how the Clinton Administration and the 

 Forest Service have abandoned the forest products industry in northern California. I also 

 am here to help set the record straight concerning promises the Clinton Administration 

 made and never fulfilled. The President's Forest Plan is devastating individuals, businesses 

 and communities which have traditionally depended on our national forests. Additionally, 

 I want to describe the layers and layers of new bureaucracy this Administration has put in 

 place to slow the development of any timber sales in northern California. 



Mr. Chairman, I£-Ridge Lumber Company is a 40-year-old saw mill, dry kiln, and planing 

 mill located in the small (population 7,500) northern California town of Yreka, California. 

 We employ approximately 130 people at the mill and an equal number of loggers and 

 truckers work in the woods to supply our mill with the logs we need to operate. Our 

 family, along with a partner, buih and has been operating Hi-Ridge Lumber Company for 

 the last 40 years. We have always actively participated in the management of this closely 

 held family business. In 1 996, we will process 45 million aboard feet of timber and 

 generate approximately S3 5 million m sales. 



We operate on several national forests in northwestern and north central California, 



