328 



will have "geozones* of 370,000 acres instead of Valued (sic) Comparison 

 Units. How does the Forest Service respond to this charge7 



Answer: We disagree. Analysis in the Revision of the existing Forest Plan 

 will be more site-specific than the existing TLMP for three reasons: (1) The 

 basic unit of data collection and analysis of resource values in the existing 

 TLMP was a Value Comparison Unit (VCU) . These land units, averaging 

 approximately 18,000 acres, were analyzed for their relative value for each 

 resource including timber, recreation, fish, and wildlife. The basic land 

 unit for data collection in the revision is a forest-wide grid of 890,000 

 twenty-acre cells. This basic land unit is 1/1000 the size of the land area 

 at which resource values were assessed in the existing Forest Plan. (2) The 

 18,000 acre VCU ' s were allocated in entirety to one of only four possible Land 

 Use Designations (LUD's) in the existing plan. The Forest Plan revision will 

 allocate each 20-acre cell to one of 24 possible Management Areas. This will 

 create a much more site-specific land allocation pattern. (3) Timber harvest 

 scheduling was done in the existing Plan using combinations of soil 

 productivity and timber strata contained in each of the three administrative 

 areas on the Forest. Timber harvest scheduling in the revision will be done 

 for each combination of 50 geographic zones, timber operability class, soil 

 productivity, timber strata, recreation place, and riparian zone. 



Question 16. At page 9 of its testimony, SEACC charges that "the quality of 

 the timber maps in the GIS is so poor that GIS maps and analysis are 

 unreliable." How do you respond to this charge, and the charge at pages 9 and 

 10 that your own specialists found the timber base date inaccurate? 



Answer: SEACC is misinterpreting Brickell's report. We asked Mr. Brickell to 

 see if that data could be adapted in conjunction with other information to 

 provide more site-specific data. Brickell says the inventories are adequate 

 for an assessment of forest areas and volumes at the Forest level but that the 

 timber estimates for specific smaller areas of land cannot be done with any 

 reasonable precision. 



The Forest inventories for the Tongass were conducted and accomplished to meet 

 prescribed standards for timber inventories on National Forest System lands. 

 The inventories for the Tongass meet those standards. Therefore, they are 

 adequate for calculating timber yields and the allowable sale quantity for the 

 Forest Plan. 



The timber on the Tongass is for the most part composed of old growth stands. 

 These stands are not homogeneous. Individual stands vary considerably from 

 each other, although collectively they may have very similar characteristics 

 such as volume per acre. Those stands with similar characteristics as to 

 volume per acre are displayed in our timber type maps, but the individual 

 stands comprising that type may vary from the type as a whole. 



The forest inventory was not designed to locate within a timber type each 

 stand that comprises that timber type. That fine degree of information is 

 gathered when cruises for individual sales are done. We can, however use the 

 data and data collected in other resource inventories to predict the effects 

 of changes caused by timber harvest. Therefore we believe that we can make 



