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The end result will be more roads and more logging with less and less fish and wildlife. A 

 great wildland and wildlife heritage will be lost. 



A review of 25 years of Congressional records shows that almost every existing wilderness area 

 with big trees was bitterly opposed by the Forest Service. Six years ago. Brock Evans, now of 

 the National Audubon Society surveyed the Forest Service's record on wilderness during the 

 years 1945-1984. He was unable to find a single example of any Congressionally designated 

 wilderness area in the four Northwest states that had been supported by the Forest Service for 

 "preservation" (an epithet to most of the top agency people) if it had stands of big trees in it 

 that could have been logged at the time that it was being set aside. 



When you consider the Tongass in 1990 you must not forget that already over half of the finest 

 and best of the biggest trees have been logged. This logging,. for the most part, was done with 

 only minimal consideration for fish and wildlife values. A substantial part of the fish and 

 wildlife habitat has been lost or severely degraded. We are, therefore, talking about saving 

 only a portion of what remains. That is not greed, it is good management. 



We will continue losing our wildlife resources from logging if key old-growth habitat is not 

 protected for perpetuity by law. For example, between 1954 and 1988, six indicator species 

 have each already declined by at least 20% on the southern half of the Tongass, according to 

 the Forest Service's 1989-94 EIS for the Ketchikan Pulp Company's 50-year contract area. The 

 EIS predicts major losses for all six species by the year 2054, the end of the 100-year cutting 

 cycle: 



Bald eagles will decline 56% 



Sitka black-tailed deer will decline 58% 



Pine martin will decline 59% 



Black bear will decline 39% 



River otters will decline 45% 



Hairy woodpeckers will decline 69% 



For north Chichagof Island, a part of Alaska Pulp Corporation's contract area, grizzly bear 

 numbers are predicted to decrease by 64% by the year 2011, the year the 50-year contract 

 expires (logging began in 1961). 



Despite these totally unacceptable predictions for wildlife losses, the Forest Service remains 

 staunchly opposed to protecting important habitat. Protecting all 24 areas won't prevent 

 further declines in wildlife populations, but it will at least prevent them from being as severe 

 as the predictions under the current logging scenario. 



LEGISLATED LANDS PROTECTION MAKES SENSE : 



Preserving key fish and wildlife habitat areas makes the best long-term common and economic 

 sense for a region heavily dependent on nontimber resources. Ninety percent of the salmon 

 harvested in Southeast Alaska are spawned and reared in Tongass watersheds, yet 70% of the 

 key fish and wildlife habitat areas in the forest are not permanently protected -- many million 

 dollar salmon streams are on the chopping block. The vast majority of Wiloerness designated 

 in the Tongass by the 1980 Alaska Lands Act was rock, ice, scrub timber, or marginal forest 

 lands, thus leaving many critical habitat areas unprotected. Twelve other national forests have 

 a higher percentage of land in Wilderness than does the Tongass. 



Wilderness designations have had no negative effect on the ability of the Forest Service to meet 

 timber demand. In 1985 the Forest Service stated in a letter to Senator Stevens: "The 

 statement that the most productive areas of the Tongass were included in the wilderness 

 designations is unfounded." Seventy-three percent of the 5.376 million acres of designated 



