365 



TELEPHONE 



BUSINESS OFFICE (907) 463-4846 

 TELEFAX (907)463-4856 



Goldbelt 



GOLDBELT PLACE. SUITE 300/801 W WTH STREET /JUNEAU. ALASKA 99801 



March 2, 1990 



The Honorable James A. McClure 



The Honorable Malcolm Wallop 



Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 



364 Dirksen Senate Office Building 



Washington, DC 20510 



Dear Senators McClure and Wallop: 



During the February 26, 1990 hearing of the Public Lands, 

 National Parks and Forests Subcommittee on the Tongass 

 legislation you directed two questions at Goldbelt, Inc. The 

 following is our reply to these two questions. 



Question #1 : I understand you are doing extensive logging on 

 your native lands. What procedures are you using to protect the 

 fish habitat, and how is that working? 



Goldbelt 's Answer to Question #1 : Goldbelt' s lands at Hobart 

 Bay, where it has logged since the early 1980' s, include two 

 streams which have significant pink salmon escapements. These 

 significant salmon streams are Laura's Creek and the Salt Chuck 

 Creek. Goldbelt has been highly sensitive to fisheries 

 protection in its logging activity within the drainage of these 

 salmon streams. Various protective measures have been utilized 

 by Goldbelt and its contract loggers to prevent slides and 

 siltation and to retain stream side buffer areas to protect the 

 stream and supply large woody debris which is necessary for the 

 salmon habitat. In addition to buffer zones of greater width 

 than State fish and game requirements, other protective measures 

 include: locating roads away from streams, minimizing of stream 

 bridging, installing filter cloth on bridge decks to prevent dirt 

 from entering the streams from trucks and equipment passing over 

 the bridges, using hard, clean crushed rock for roadway 

 surfacing, constructing energy dissipators at outfalls at 

 critical culverts, logging on frozen ground and deep snow during 

 winter, full suspension of logs over areas critical to water 

 quality, excavating road material by costly end haul along 

 steeper slopes, directional felling of timber away from buffer 

 zones and not yarding logs across streams, and construction of 

 silt catch basins along roadway ditches. 



These protective measures have been highly effective. According 

 to comparative analyses of Alaska Department of Fish and Game 



