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Southeast Alaska Conservation Council 



SEACC • P.O. Box 021692 • Juneau. Alaska 99802 • (907-586-69421 



Washington. DC. Office: 



do National Audubon Society 



801 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E. 



Washington, DC 20003 



2 541014V 



arch' "2, 1990 



The Honorable Bennett Johnston, Chairman 

 Energy and Natural Resources Committee 

 U.S. Senate 

 Washington, DC 20510 



Dear Senator Johnston: 



As requested, we are providing our responses to questions you asked during the February 26th 

 Tongass hearing, as well as making some clarifications to statements made by others during the 

 hearing. Additionally, we are attaching our responses to the written questions from Senators 

 McClure and Wallop. 



You asked: What impact would permanent protection of lands have on the Tongass limber supply 

 and Tongass-dependent timber jobs? 



Since 1980, the average annual harvest from the Tongass has been 295 million board feet. In the 

 high timber demand years of 1988 and 1989 the harvest was 331.5 and 377 million board feet, 

 respectively. Because the 1980s encompass a complete market cycle for Tongass timber, from lows 

 to highs, the average annual cut for this decade is a good, realistic expression of timber demand. 



Based on the above Forest Service figures, SEACC believes H.R. 987 would have no impact on 

 existing Tongass-dependent timber jobs. 



H.R. 987 would reduce the current available timber supply by 13-14% -- from 450 down to 390 

 million board feet per year (using Forest Service figures). Permanent protection of all 23 proposed 

 areas, plus the Salmon Bay Lake watershed, would be an annual reduction of 50 million board feet. 

 The mandatory 100' buffer strips would be another 10 million board foot reduction annually. 

 This leaves still leaves 13 million more board feet per year than was harvested in the banner year 

 of 1989, and 95 million more than the decade long average. This does not take into account that 

 the Forest Service is free to release LUD II timber into the scheduled timber base, via the TLMP 

 revision process. 



The State of Alaska position (also the original Southeast Conference position) for permanent lands 

 protection would reduce the annual currently available timber supply by 23-28 million board 

 feet. The State's position calls for 100' buffers on Class I streams only, an impact of 4%, but since 

 the Forest Service says it already practices this there would be no further impact on the available 

 timber supply. Thus, 422-427 million board feet of timber per year would be available under the 

 State's position. 



We must note here some misleading statements made by Don Finney of the Alaska Loggers 

 Association. Mr. Finney's statement that the 1989 harvest was 420 million board feet is misleading 

 because this figure includes utility logs in addition to sawloes . The 450 timber supply goal is 

 calculated on a sawlog basis only -- the 1989 sawlog harvest was 377 million board feet. 



Mr. Finney further claimed that H.R. 987 would have a 77 million board foot per year impact on 

 the ASQ. To arrive at this misleading figure, Finney included LUD lis and LUD I Release areas 

 that are not currently in the scheduled timber supply. The impact on the current scheduled timber 

 supply is 50 million board feet annually. 



PELICAN FORESTRY COUNCIL • FRIENDS OF BERNERS BAT, Juneau * URANGELL RESOURCE COUNCIL * SITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETY 



FALSE ISLANDKOOK LAKE COUNCIL, Tenakee Springs * LYNN CANAL CONSERVATION, Haines * TAKU CONSERVATION SOCIETY, Juneau 



NARROWS CONSERVATION COALITION, Petersburg * FRIENDS OF GLACIER BAY, Gustavus * TONGASS CONSERVATION SOCIETY, Ketchikan 



ALASKA SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FORESTDWELLERS, Point Baker * JUNEAU GROUP SIERRA CLUB * YAKUTAT RESOURCE CONSERVATION COUNCIL 



