280 



Members of the Senate 

 March 27, 1995 



We also are a natural resource dependent industry. We are sympathetic to the plight of timber 

 communities, and are not opposed to harvesting timber through the existing Forest Plan or in ways 

 that are legal under current law. However, it makes no economic sense to harvest timber on the 

 backs of flshennen and at tbe expense of the jobs and coastal communities which salmon 

 support. This would be a form of economic suicide for the region. 



Federal managemem agencies already have an aggressive fire salvage program, and all the legal 

 authority they need to implement it. However, they should not be forced by law to move fester than 

 they can complete the necessaiy environmental assessments and watershed analyses so they can take 

 the proper steps to protea fragile salmon and other aquatic resources. The sohition is not 

 "sufficiency language," nor is it mandated levels. The real solution would be to accelerate funding 

 to the USPS and BLM to enable them to more quickly complete the necessary watershed analyses 

 for their own planned salvage and harvest programs. 



Sufficiency language and mandated harvest levels are simply bad ideas. If enacted, they would 

 fiirther deplete sahnon and other aquatic resources which it is vitally important to protect. They 

 would also fiirther devastate fishing economies throughout the region. They would throw our 

 industry fiirther into economic diaos. They would make it just that much tougher, and just that much 

 more expensive, to restore the Northwest's valuable salmon runs back to fiill productivity. 



We urge you to oppose every attempt to impose "sufficiency language" to override current 

 envircmmental protections as weD as the setting of mandatory harvest or salvage levels on our nation's 

 forests — whether by appropriations rider, amendment or separate l^islation. Thank you. 



Sincerely, y 



Executive Director 

 Pacific Coast Federation of 

 Fishermen's A^seciaiions 



iic H^. /f- ^ 



Liz Hamilton 

 Executive Director 

 Northwest Sportfishing 

 Industry Association (NSIA) 



