274 



IMC* 



UNITED FISHERMEN OF ALASKA 



211 4th Street Sijila 1C6 



Juneau, AK 90601 



307-586-2R2C 



January 30, 199C 



Board of Directors 



Southeast Conference 

 P.O. Box 22236 

 Juneau, Alaska 993C: 



Dear Board Mergers: 



Or. behalf of our Southeast Alaska !.-.er.;b?r organizations, i'stei 

 beltw, \:s are responding tc the proposal put forth *t year January i.'-cd 

 meeting that requested yoa to change a portion of ycur j.usiticn on 

 ANILCA amendments regarding the Tongass National Forest. CoT.r.-.erclal 

 flr.her.ien in Southeast are gravely'conoerned a'iout several a pecti of 

 this proposal and the situation surrounding it. 



It appears thai you have not been presented with enough information 

 to make a well- informed decision, and it is unfortunate that this .short 

 comr.ont period will not really allow us to remedy that situation, We 

 can only jive you brief examples of the gaps in the proposal you are 

 considering. During your neeting commercial fishing has mentioned onl/ 

 once er twice, yet ours is the largest private industry in Southeast. 

 Here we accounted for alnost 12,000 jobs in 1986 just in the harvesting 

 sector, and fishermen earned m:re than $109,000,000 that year. The 

 estimates for 1983 and 1989 for Southeast salmon fisherr.cn approver 

 J 125,000,000. Commercial salmon fisheries rely on thousands >f largt' 

 and small streaTi systems in Southeast to provide this nai"vest value. 

 For exa-nple, the ! Isianskl River system alone accounts for a harvest oi 

 more than $1,000,000 each year. Yet in the explanation you received of 

 proposed changes to the Lisianski area thejee was no mention of conmer: ,' al 

 fishing. Although you were told that "much of the area . . . Joes not 

 have any unique or special features," the fact is that it is one of the 

 top five salmon producers in the region. A similar exsaipla is '.he 

 Chuck River which also supports an annual harvest of $1,000,000. Vet 

 once again the explanation you were given doesn't even hint that there 

 are commercial fisheries values that could be impaired by tinker harvest. 



You are being asked to make major changes to your position in the 

 name of clarification, and you are being asked to do so in a hasty 

 fashion. Your original position was respected because it was arrived at 

 in a deliberate manner after consultation with most of the affected 

 Interests and residents. The same cannot be said for the actio); you are 

 now contemplating. You can see in the two examples abo.-e that you don't 

 have the full picture before you. The corcnercial fishing industry provides 

 aore direct jobs than any enterprise other than government, yet cv?n our 

 elected officials sometimes forget that fish as well as trees grow in 

 the Tongass. 



