10 



In closing, this Nation's suitable timber base and national forests can be managed 

 for a profit and forest health without compromising jobs in America. "Below-cost 

 timber sales" are a Government overhead and accountability problem, not a subsi- 

 dy. Whether or not a Federal agency loses money on a sale has no reflection on the 

 timber sale itself because the timber sale is carrying all of the management func- 

 tions of the forest and is sold based on fair market value to the highest bidder. 



Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor. 



Senator Daschle. Our colleague from New Hampshire is here in 

 person, and we are delighted that he is. We invite him to proceed 

 with his testimony at this time. 



STATEMENT OF HON. JUDD GREGG, A U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW 



HAMPSHIRE 



Senator Gregg. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and thank you, Larry, 

 also, for your courtesy in allowing me to testify today. Those of you 

 from the West probably don't realize that the East has a timber 

 business, but as a practical matter, the second most highly tim- 

 bered or forested State in the country is New Hampshire; the first 

 is Maine. We are States which have a very aggressive and active 

 timber and forestry products industry, and large part of our forest- 

 ry products industry is tied to the purchase of timber from public 

 lands. Although we don't have the heavy amount of public lands 

 that many States have in the West, we do have a considerable 

 amount of public lands. 



The largest parcel of public land in New Hampshire is the White 

 Mountain National Forest, a unique national forest that takes up 

 about 17 percent of the State's land mass, and it is the most visited 

 national forest in the country, having a very high tourist attraction 

 because of its close proximity to urban areas, and also because of 

 the spectacular beauty of the White Mountains, which make up the 

 core of this national forest. 



However, over the years since the Weaks Act was enacted — and 

 actually, the Weaks Act was initiated as a result of concern about 

 protecting the White Mountain National Forest — it has become a 

 symbol of how to manage a national forest in a multiple-use way. 

 The concept of ecosystem management really applies to the White 

 Mountain National Forest and has been carried out there in an ex- 

 traordinarily successful way. Even though it is the most visited na- 

 tional forest in the Nation, it produces a large amount of timber 

 activity for the purposes of supporting the forestry industries, both 

 the pulp and paper industries, and the timber industries and the 

 lumber industries, and it also has a large amount of land which is 

 dedicated to wilderness and a balanced approach toward recre- 

 ational use, commercial use, and the protection of wildlife and the 

 ecosystem. 



This has been accomplished with a lot of hard work by all the 

 different interest groups that are concerned about the protection of 

 this area. And there is absolute agreement among these interest 

 groups in New Hampshire, including probably the leading spokes- 

 man for the environmental groups in New Hampshire, a group 

 called the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, 

 which is a group that has for years been committed to protecting 

 the quality of the environment in our State. It is a total agreement 

 between environmental groups such as the Society, and the logging 



