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you would be: Why not wait for the forest management planning 

 process? Mr. Metcalf? 



Mr. Metcalf. Yes, I would be delighted to respond to that. The 

 forest plan that was originally promised back in 1987 — and I have 

 submitted that document for the record, or at least part of it — 

 promised a number of things, and it promised that the plan would 

 be in compliance with NFMA, the National Forest Management 

 Act, NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, and ANILCA. 



Because of serious problems with the plan, particularly the 

 timber inventory, it would appear that the Forest Service is not 

 going to be able to uphold that promise, and this was con- 

 firmed 



Senator McClure. But are you not prejudging that at this point? 



Mr. Metcalf. No, sir, I do not believe so. 



Senator McClure. You have already concluded that you know 

 what the answer is. 



Mr. Metcalf. No, I think in talking with the Forest Service that 

 they said that they would not be able to resolve a number of issues, 

 because of the problems with the timber information. 



Senator McClure. All right. Let me ask you this question in that 

 connection. If indeed they cannot because they do not have enough 

 information, how can we? We have substantially less information 

 than they have. 



Mr. Metcalf. I think, as was stated earlier, the Tongass Forest is 

 not managed like any other forest. It has the two 50-year contracts, 

 and it has the mandated timber harvest. That in itself gets in the 

 way of NFMA. The two contracts have not been brought into com- 

 pliance with NFMA. 



Senator McClure. No, but I want to get back to that other ques- 

 tion. If you say that the Forest Service admits that they cannot 

 meet the mandates because they do not have enough information, 

 then how can we legislate, having even less information than they 

 have? 



Mr. Metcalf. Well, I think again that the information that we 

 developed in the Tongass land management plan 1 is probably 

 more site-specific, better information than what is available now. 



Senator McClure. You are suggesting what you have gone 

 through is superior to what the Forest Service has gone through? 



Mr. Metcalf. No, I am talking about my experience with the 

 Forest Service in developing the Tongass land management plan, 

 and that the information that was developed in that plan was not 

 as sophisticated, but it was more site-specific and could probably be 

 used to resolve the problems better than the information they are 

 now developing. 



Senator McClure. Mr. Griffin, do you have a comment? 



Mr. Griffin. Yes, sir. As I have stated earlier, the Southeast 

 Conference is in favor of the TLMP process. We very much support 

 that. It is a process that is well defined. People in Southeast Alaska 

 understand it. They do respond to hearings, and if you think these 

 discussions are heated, you ought to come to Sitka some time. 



I would like to correct something, a statement Mr. Metcalf made, 

 and that was that Sitka has not taken a position officially on this. 

 They could not because they had not had a regularly scheduled 



