66 



The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Leonard. 



Next we will hear from Dr. James W. Brooks, Deputy Director of 

 the Alaska Region for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Dr. 

 Brooks. 



STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES W. BROOKS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, 

 ALASKA REGION, NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, DE- 

 PARTMENT OF COMMERCE, ACCOMPANIED BY DR. K. KOSKI, 

 FISHERIES BIOLOGIST, AUKE BAY LABORATORY, NATIONAL 

 MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE 



Dr. Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A special hello to our 

 own Senator Murkowski and the gentlemen of the committee. I am 

 pleased with the opportunity to address you today. 



NOAA has responsibilities for the conservation, management 

 and development of the nation's living marine resources. These in- 

 clude salmon. 



The salmon resource of Southeastern Alaska is worth about $125 

 million a year, not counting the additional value of the subsistence 

 and recreational use of that resource. The habitat that supports 

 that resource, therefore, is also of much concern to NOAA. 



I would like to move directly to the issue of mandatory 100-foot 

 buffer strips along salmon streams that is provided for in H.R. 987. 

 NOAA endorses that mandatory provision and feels that if it is not 

 mandatory then there is an unacceptable risk of not having ade- 

 quate protection over the long term. 



Our studies, which now include some 20 published referred scien- 

 tific articles on this very subject, demonstrate clearly that the 

 quantity and quality of salmon habitat is directly related to the 

 size and quantity of trees adjacent to streams and actually in the 

 streams. 



When they are in the streams, they are usually termed "large 

 woody debris." This large woody debris is — and by that I mean 

 logs — recruited to the streams mainly from the banks, essentially 

 all of it from within 100 feet. 



Very large trees within this zone are valuable. They are attrac- 

 tive to the industry, to foresters. They are called money trees. In 

 the jargon of the industry, they are called "pumpkins." The indus- 

 try and, it seems, the Forest Service believes that such trees may 

 safely be harvested from these 100-foot buffer zones. 



Even if logging techniques could be developed to pluck these 

 giants out of a narrow buffer strip without the appearance of im- 

 mediate damage, we believe the longer term degradation of the 

 salmon habitat is certain. These trees may be 300, 600, 900 years 

 old. They are wind-firm. They have withstood everything nature 

 could throw at them for centuries. They protect everything else in 

 that environment. If you take them out, you accelerate all manner 

 of changes, few if any of which will be beneficial for the habitat of 

 salmonid fish. When they do fall, they contribute beneficially to 

 the fish and wildlife habitat for a century or more, depending on 

 their size. 



I certainly commend the attitude of present Forest Service ad- 

 ministrators for embracing the concept and policy of buffer strips 



