91 



We are requiring a 100-foot buffer on the main streams, the per- 

 ennials which have high significant flow. Most of the streams like 

 that are fairly good-sized. They are like five meters in width, chan- 

 nel width. And I would suggest here is where the site-specific pre- 

 scription and the 24 fisheries biologists could be readily used to 

 make a determination on the ground as to which one of those 

 streams need the 100-foot buffer. 



The Chairman. Well, we would like to see your language, and 

 right away. 



Dr. Koski. Okay, but I can sum it up again, in that the Class Ill's 

 running into Class I's need a 100-foot buffer if they are perennial 

 and have a significant downstream influence on Class I's. Those 

 Class Ill's running directly into salt water require only best man- 

 agement practices. 



The Chairman. Would anyone like to quarrel with those sugges- 

 tions? 



Mr. Leonard. Well, we certainly do not believe that that is a 

 necessary step in order to maintain the fishery capabilities of those 

 streams. We think that in some cases 100 foot is simply not 

 enough; in some places we must go further than that in order to 

 maintain the fisheries proper. 



In other cases we can operate closer than that, removing selec- 

 tive trees. In some cases we may want to add large woody debris to 

 a particular stream course, deliberately add it to the stream course, 

 in order to enhance the cover and what-not in that stream. 



If we have the capability of operating in those streams, we could 

 do that, again on the basis of a site-specific prescription. 



We also have the problem that Alaska is an area of regular high 

 winds and blowdown, blowdown of individual trees and of stands of 

 trees, is a regular part of life in Alaska. And that includes within 

 those riparian zones. 



The Chairman. But I think Dr. Brooks was saying that the blow- 

 down is helpful. 



Mr. Leonard. Ordinarily it would be. That is how those trees get 

 into there. But if you blow down four or five acres in a batch and 

 you have a legislative prohibition against getting in there, you can 

 actually have a stream course totally blocked, and it will be 

 blocked for a long period of time if you do not have the capability 

 of going in there and removing that debris to a reasonable level to 

 let fisheries through. 



The Chairman. Now, would you be prepared to say what the 

 effect of the kind of buffer zone that Dr. Brooks urges, what the 

 effect would be on the timber harvest? 



Mr. Leonard. I will ask Mike Barton to address that. 



Mr. Barton. Yes, Mr. Chairman. We believe that the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service policies outlined in the letter to Congress- 

 man Miller, I think in last July, would include about ten percent of 

 the land in the timber base. 



Now, I worded that carefully because we would under our prac- 

 tices and procedures, we would also include some of that same land 

 with our existing policies. 



The Chairman. I do not believe, by the way, you identified your- 

 self. 



