92 



Mr. Barton. I am sorry. I am Michael Barton, the Regional For- 

 ester for the Forest Service in Alaska. 



The Chairman. Well, what is the effect beyond the normal poli- 

 cies of his? 



Mr. Barton. Well, it could be as much as twice what our prac- 

 tices. 



The Chairman. Five percent additional? 



Mr. Barton. Five percent additional, yes, sir. But it is difficult to 

 tell because we do our practices on a site-specific basis, so there is 

 some leeway in there. 



Mr. Leonard. Mr. Chairman, I might add that as we read the 

 House-passed bill it would seem to require even greater impacts 

 than are set forth in the National Marine Fisheries Service letter. 



Mr. Barton. That is correct. 



The Chairman. Senator Murkowski? 



Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Dr. Brooks, there seems to be some confusion on the 100-foot 

 buffer strips which you have indicated you feel are necessary for 

 the Class III flowing into Class I, and I believe it is generally un- 

 derstood that Class III — there is no other class than III; that is the 

 one that comes off the alpine, it is perhaps dry in the summertime, 

 in the wintertime it may be frozen, there may not be much water 

 coming off. 



And your concern is, I assume, the muddying that would occur if 

 logging took place in a drainage of a Class III, and then that wash- 

 ing down into a Class I, is that correct? 



Dr. Brooks. Yes, sir, that can happen. 



Senator Murkowski. That is your concern? 



Dr. Brooks. We are not that concerned about a 100-foot buffer 

 strip on a lot of the Class III streams. We certainly would defer to 

 the judgment of the Forest Service. 



Senator Murkowski. You would defer to the judgment of the 

 Forest Service on Class III? 



Dr. Brooks. Absolutely, on the Class Ill's. They have water qual- 

 ity standards that must be protected and those generally will suf- 

 fice for our concerns regarding water quality downstream. 



Senator Murkowski. If I could put it another way, then, I 

 assume that you would just leave it up to the Forest Service to set 

 standards on III? 



Dr. Brooks. Some of our scientists would like to go further, but, 

 being realistic about it, most of the timber that would be reserved 

 through a buffer strip program would involve Class III streams, 

 and there have been calculations made that to protect all the Class 

 III streams might tie up as much as 40 percent of the timber. 



Well, that is unreasonable. We are not proposing anything of 

 that sort. We are asking that where there are particularly sensitive 

 Class III streams that could, through instability, landslides, create 

 serious sedimentation problems downstream, that certainly extra 

 care be taken there, and perhaps in many cases that would be a 

 100-foot leave strip. If not, then best management practices should 

 determine it. 



Senator Murkowski. I assume that in many cases, if you have 

 some logging on a Class III area and there is sedimentation, that as 



