396 



The inequities between the long-term sales and competitive 

 sales are well documented on the Tongass, but the AMS does not 

 consider the effects of the long-term timber sales contracts. 

 The document thus compares the value of non-timber forest resour- 

 ces against inflated timber values, due to the fact that the 

 long-term timber sales are not included in the equation. Also 

 ignored are the ecological and economic impacts to other 

 resources as a result of logging under the long-term contract. 



Tongass Timber values Exclude Important Costa 



Instead of including road costs in calculating the value of 

 Tongass timber, the Forest Service handles these costs separately 

 in the planning process, 7 supposedly because road costs vary from 

 one geographic area to another. Nevertheless, the AMS estimates 

 road costs from 1985 to 1987 and then applies them uniformly 

 across the forest. The average road costs represent the first 

 harvest entry into unroaded areas and reflect only the costs to 

 access readily accessible timber. Forest Service studies indi- 

 cate that logging and roading costs are expected to increase 

 substantially during subsequent logging entries into a given 

 area. Claims that future logging costs will be reduced because 

 of the road system already in place ignore site specific studies 

 that indicate that these cost savings will be offset by the 

 greater costs in harvesting the less accessible timber. The AMS 

 ignores this information and thus grossly overestimates the value 

 of the timber program. 



The AMS Lacks Site Specific Timber Resource Information 



Forest Service planners and State of Alaska wildlife biolo- 

 gists recently uncovered major discrepancies between the Tongass 

 timber type maps and actual on-the-ground conditions. 8 Rather 

 than correct this problem, the Forest Service chose to aggregate 

 site specific aspects of the timber resource into forest wide 

 averages, thus further obscuring the actual range of conditions 

 that affect the economic and ecological analyses used in forest 

 planning. These non-specific aggregations are being used to 

 estimate important factors — including species distribution, log 

 grade, and size of timber — which strongly influence timber 

 values. Unless this information is changed to reflect actual, 

 site specific conditions, the agency will lack a system for 



Since 1980, road construction and engineering costs have accounted for up to 60 percent of the annual 

 Tongass timber program expenditures. 



8 In the summer of 1989, the Forest Service compared the forest inventory data gathered from 516 ground 

 plots with the information predicted by existing timber type map* for the same locations. A "poor" 

 correlation was found. 



