24 



This is the core of the "1980 Deal" -- what I call the "price of 

 wilderness" — the law creating the wilderness also insured that 5.4 

 million acres of wilderness designations, including 1 .6 million acres of 

 commercial timber, did not reduce the timber supply below the Forest 

 Service planning level and result in economic dislocation in Southeast 

 Alaska. The House passed Tongass wilderness bill not only doubles 

 back on the promises Congress made to Alaskans in 1980 but goes 

 further to root out of the Tongass the timber industry and the 

 communities which depend upon it. 



H.R. 987 attempts to shut down the industry through 

 cancellation of contracts and reducing the timber supply through 

 termination of the intensive forest management program. And it 

 would remove an additional 1.8 million acres from multiple use 

 management — making wilderness the dominant use of the forest. 



This bill leaves only 37% of the entire 16.8 million acre forest 

 available for multiple uses such as timber management, mining and 

 road access hunting, fishing and recreation. This will greatly affect 

 the future growth of the Southeast Alaska tourism industry and 

 eliminate any possibility that many isolated communities would 

 someday be connected by a road or utility system. Most important, 

 however, is the fact that the 23 proposed wilderness areas, totaling 

 more than 1.8 million acres, are aimed at the heart of the short term 

 viability of the timber industry. 



H.R. 987 also abrogates contracts with two pulp mills that 

 depend on the Tongass forest for wood fiber. The exposure to the 

 United States could be significant — possibly running into the 

 hundreds of millions of dollars. If the pulp mills have to close, the 

 rest of the industry will collapse. This is because 49% of the trees are 

 dead or dying or good only for making pulp. Half the wood fiber goes 

 to the pulp mills and half goes to the saw mills. And the saw mills sell 

 their chips back to the pulp mills. We have an integrated industry 

 built up around the pulp mills. They are a critical component. 



The 1947 Tongass Timber Act was more than enabling 

 legislation for two pulp mill contracts, it was a federal commitment to 

 the people of Southeast Alaska. Entire communities believed in and in 

 fact were built on this commitment. Many people have located their 

 families and invested in their homes and businesses in reliance on the 

 United States living up to its end of the bargain. Cities were 

 established and schools and hospitals were built. Families settled in 

 and when the children reached adulthood they found work in the 

 woods and homes near their parents. I know because I watched this 

 take place as I grew up in Ketchikan and worked as a banker in 

 Wrangell. 



