93 



a consequence of the infrequency of the water flowing, that the 

 sediment may or may not reach the Class I stream? 



Dr. Brooks. That is true. 



Senator Murkowski. I am sorry? 



Dr. Brooks. Yes, sir. 



Senator Murkowski. So your bottom line is on those in question, 

 leave it up to best forest management practices in Class HI 

 streams? 



Dr. Brooks. Yes, sir, I think that is a fair statement. 



Senator Murkowski. Thank you. 



Dr. Brooks. Although my colleague, Dr. Koski, would seek some- 

 thing more than that. 



Senator Murkowski. Well, I understand that, and there are 

 many who would seek no timber cut at all. So I guess we have to 

 stop somewhere. 



Dr. Koski. May T comment on that, please, Senator Murkowski? 



Senator Murkowski. If you wish. 



Dr. Koski. In Dr. Brooks' comments, and he has outlined them 

 properly, there are a vast amount of Class III type streams in the 

 area, and they account for a large volume of the area, and that is 

 why the percentage that the Forest Service and the industry has 

 shown can take a lot of timber out, timber lost to the industry or to 

 the cut. 



But let me point out that many of those type III streams are still 

 of a size that can have a significant downstream impact, and it is 

 extremely important that we have adequate protection for those 

 streams, and the NMFS policy is to advocate a 100-foot minimum 

 buffer on those streams. 



Again, let me say the majority do not fall in that classification. 

 Most of those require BMP's. And we have set out some guidelines 

 in our July 28, 1989, letter from James W. Brennan to Representa- 

 tive George Miller, stating that any of those streams over eight 

 percent gradient, which are ephemeral or intermittent, do not re- 

 quire a buffer. 



I would also like to point out that a considerable amount of re- 

 search has been done by researchers in the Northwest and Alaska 

 and British Columbia, Oregon and Washington, and they have 

 shown that these alpine streams, these high gradient streams, are 

 the source of much of the sedimentation, through debris torrents, 

 which can really raise havoc with habitat. 



They can destroy much of the spawning and rearing habitat 

 through landslides and sedimentation, and the reason for this is be- 

 cause there is a lot of woody debris i.e., logging slash, that was left 

 in the stream and not enough trees for protecting the stream bank 

 or side slopes, which can cause unstable conditions. 



Senator Murkowski. I assume that you, as I, have seen the 

 damage done by blowdowns, where you get a Thanksgiving wind 

 that occurs in Juneau maybe every ten years, and you get these 

 huge areas on the exposed slopes and down in the valleys where 

 the wind concentrates and you get all that timber into the creek, 

 and you get mudslides associated with that and any number of 

 things that obviously have a devastating effect on the stream. 



PQ-RQ1 _ an 



