19 



I call these great myths because they bear no relationship what- 

 soever to reality, and I and my colleagues are a little bit tired of 

 the inaccuracies being repeated over and over with regard to those 

 two points. 



The facts on the economic issue: it's true that the Tongass timber 

 program when it was set up in 1980, included an automatic appro- 

 priation of at least $40 million. But our bill, S. 237, repeals that 

 fund. 



Opponents of logging also conveniently forget that the $40 mil- 

 lion was a quid pro quo for preserving the 5.4 million acres of the 

 Tongass as wilderness. My colleague Senator Stevens recalls that 

 agreement: 1.6 million acres of that was taken out of the commer- 

 cial timber base in 1980 and put into wilderness. So clearly, it was 

 the price of wilderness. 



It is also true that direct return to the treasury in the mid-1980's 

 was less than what the government spent. But the Tongass is not 

 unique. Virtually every other national forest lost money because of 

 disastrous global timber markets at that time. Available for you, 

 Mr. Chairman, and others, we have exhibits to document that fact. 



Opponents of logging fail to acknowledge, one, that the contracts 

 have been renegotiated, the sale price of timber reflects current 

 high market prices; and further, that the Tongass now is one of the 

 nation's most profitable forests, returning $1.41 for every dollar 

 spent in 1989. 



The bottom line, therefore, is that there is no economic problem 

 with the Tongass. The myth is perpetuated by those whose objec- 

 tive is to stop logging and turn Tongass into nothing but a wilder- 

 ness area. 



Another myth, Mr. Chairman, is that the Tongass is in danger of 

 being clearcut. Well, to get an idea of how outrageous this myth is, 

 I ask my colleagues to refer to the map. It's a Forest Service map 

 that was recently done. Tom Roberts of my staff will point it out. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, I do not think you can see the little dark 

 green dots, but these are all the areas which have been logged over 

 the last four years. I am not talking about the light green, but if 

 you get up there real close you can see tiny little green dots. 



I would ask, Mr. Chairman, perhaps later if you could walk over 

 and take a peek at it, because I cannot see them here, and I know 

 Ted Stevens cannot see them either. [Laughter.] 



Senator Murkowski. But they are there. 



Now, you can see the dark blue. That shows you how much wil- 

 derness is already there. You cannot see the areas that have been 

 logged, but you can see the wilderness and the other areas where 

 logging is prohibited. 



The red and the orange indicate areas where logging is prohibit- 

 ed. 



To put it in perspective, Mr. Chairman, only one-tenth of the 17 

 million acre forest will ever be harvested in perpetuity. But we 

 want to confine our comparisons to only commercial timber areas. 

 We see that one-third is in wilderness, 1.6 million acres; one-third 

 is otherwise off-limits to logging. That equals two million acres. 

 The remaining one-third is to be logged, or 1.7 million acres. 



So Mr. Chairman, the Tongass is clearly not in danger of being 

 clearcut. 



