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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 ASQ 

 guarantee: "Why shouldn't the Tongass be treated like every other 

 forest?" Why shouldn't the National Forest Management Act land 

 planning process be employed on the Tongass? Five 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? 



In 1976, Congress enacted the National Forest Management 

 Act (NFMA). This landmark legislation established a long term 

 planning process to be implemented by the U.S. Forest Service in 

 a manner consistent with these principles. NFMA required a forest 

 plan to be developed for each national forest by September 1985. 

 Each plan was to be revised every ten years, again subject to 

 active public participation. 



The Forest Service implemented the Tongass Land Manage- 

 ment Plan (TLMP) in 1979, pursuant to the NFMA, the first such 

 forest plan in the nation. Congress carefully reviewed TLMP when 

 it passed Section 705 in 1980. As part of TLMP, the Forest Service 

 assigned a high priority to the protection of fish and wildlife 

 resources. Over 40% of the Tongass was designated as high priority 

 wildlife habitat areas. Almost 70% of the identified deer winter 

 habitat will remain unharvested in the year 2079. The TLMP 

 revision process provides sufficient flexibility should the agency 

 determine that greater protection of deer winter habitat is 

 necessary. 



