11 



industry, and the recreational industries, including the local Appa- 

 lachian Mountain clubs, that the below-cost timber sale activity on 

 the White Mountain National Forest has been an extremely criti- 

 cal and constructive part of maintaining a balanced approach to 

 maintaining the White Mountains as an excellent national forest. 

 And that is for a lot of reasons which I think this committee is cer- 

 tainly sensitive to. The need to harvest timber in the East is a 

 little different than the harvesting in the West in that our timber 

 grows like weeds, grows quickly, and regular harvesting is very im- 

 portant and very critical especially to wildlife. It is also critical, of 

 course, to the local economic support, which is important to the na- 

 tional forest. 



I think that in addressing the issue of below-cost timber sales, we 

 have really gotten tied up in a title or in the name that has been 

 given to it — "below-cost timber sales." Well, in New Hampshire, it 

 is "fair market timber sales." The sales that occur on the national 

 forest are not subsidized sales in the sense that people are paying 

 less than they would pay in the fair market for the commodity. 

 These are timber sales which are generated by a public bid process. 

 There is stiff competition to obtain the bids, and in many instances 

 I suspect the timber prices paid for national forest timber may 

 even exceed the timber prices paid on the private lands which sur- 

 round the national forest, but in all instances, they at least equal 

 the fair market value of what the timber is going for on the private 

 land. 



New Hampshire and Maine and Vermont have a large amount of 

 private holdings where the competition is also fairly significant for 

 the purposes of purchasing timber, and therefore the White Moun- 

 tain National Forest cannot sell this timber at a subsidized level 

 and does not sell it at a subsidized level in relationship to sales on 

 the private land. So it is a fair market price that is being paid for 

 this timber. 



The inability to come onto the national land and purchase this 

 timber would have a dramatic impact on the economy of the 

 region. It is estimated that there are approximately 500 jobs — that 

 doesn't sound like a whole lot down here in Washington, but it is a 

 great deal for a region that is not overly populated and which is 

 especially dependent on the wood products industry. Approximate- 

 ly 15 to 20 percent of the pulp that is used at the major manufac- 

 turing facility in this part of our State, which facility employs, 

 either directly or indirectly, 70 percent of the people in the north- 

 ern county of New Hampshire, comes off the national forest land. 



It is estimated that the Federal tax revenues last year from the 

 sales which are not subsidized, from the below-cost sales or from 

 the fair market sales, the people doing the business on the national 

 forest, represented about $3.1 million. It is estimated that the pay- 

 ments to local communities as a result of the timber tax was about 

 $500,000, which is a very significant amount. And it is estimated 

 that the below-cost timber sale cost the Government about 

 $700,000. So you can see that if you compare what was generated 

 in Federal taxes to what the cost was, the Federal Government is a 

 winner almost 4 to 1, and if you compare it, and you start throwing 

 in the number of jobs that are involved and the local taxes that are 

 involved, it becomes an even more significant number. 



