190 



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

 Next we will hear from Don Finney, who is the General Manager 

 of the Alaskan Loggers Association. 



STATEMENT OF DON FINNEY, GENERAL MANAGER, ALASKA 



LOGGERS ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Finney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Chairman, my name is Don Finney. 



The Chairman. If you could pull the microphone up, please. 



Mr. Finney. I have been a professional forester in Alaska for 

 over 40 years. I am the General Manager of the Alaska Loggers As- 

 sociation. The Alaska Loggers Association is made up of 115 regu- 

 lar members and 180 associate members. Its direct members 

 employ over 4500 persons in their total timber operations in 

 Alaska. 3500 of these are on the Tongass National Forest. 



This number is indicated in the McDowell report that we just re- 

 ceived Friday p.m. and that shows the Tongass employment infor- 

 mation and wages. We will turn that in for the record today, sir. 



The Tongass discussions have now broken into two parts: the 

 Tongass reform issue, which launched the debate in 1986; and the 

 land issue about buffer strips, which first emerged as an issue in 

 1989. Today's hearings, as I understand it, is to deal solely with the 

 latter of these two issues. 



The TLMP process. The problems with the completion of the leg- 

 islation at this point have to do with the buffer strip and land allo- 

 cation issues. We in the timber industry now ask the same question 

 posed by the environmental community concerning the $40 million 

 automatic appropriation and the 4.5 billion board-feet per decade 

 allowable sale quantity guarantee: 



Why should not the Tongass be treated like every other forest? 

 Why should not the National Forest Management Act planning 

 process be employed on the Tongass? $7 million has been spent by 

 the Forest Service to date on the TLMP revision process and it is 

 quite close to producing draft land alternatives. 



The TLMP revision process has now started. The draft EIS with 

 land use alternatives will be out in June. However, the first step in 

 the process, the benchmarks for the analysis of the management 

 situation, has come out. 



Its preliminary findings show that under the current plan the 

 Tongass could maintain an allowable sale quantity of 450 million 

 board-feet per year for the next ten years. This would leave 15.7 

 million acres of roadless land, including designated wilderness, at 

 the end of the next planning cycle; a capability of producing 130 

 million pounds of fish per year for the next 50 years; 7.5 million 

 acres of old growth remaining after 50 years; and 4,200,000 visitor 

 recreation days a year. 



And the Tongass would maintain a $2.7 billion present net value 

 excluding minerals. This is shown on page 52 of the Forest Service 

 analysis of the management situation, which I am sure you have 

 received a copy of. 



Further, several options appear to exist to increase the allowable 

 sale quantity. While maintaining fish capability and recreation vis- 

 itor days, these options could increase employment and present net 



