448 



Buffer Zones • Harvest Levels 



5. Buffer zones along streams and waterways to protect views, fisheries, and wildlife habitat are con- 

 sidered important. However, I feel regulations concerning buffer zones are already in the Forest Man- 

 agement Plans and alternatives and site specific management should be left to the professional resource 

 managers. There may be cases where 100-ft buffer zones are not enough and others where they may be 

 too much or not necessary. We should let professional resource managers decide. 



Agree^O' Disagree □ 



6. Only 10% of the Tongass National Forest can ever be harvested. Only 30% of the commercial timber 

 on the Tongass can ever be cut, and that is over a 100 year cycle. With 70% of the Tongass' commercial 

 forest off-limits to logging, I believe the Tongass has enough Wilderness and that Congress should not 

 take any additional land out of the timber base that supports one third of the entire economy of South- 

 east Alaska. >> 



AgreexJ Disagree □ 



7» The whole national timber industry is in jeopardy because of lawsuits against the Forest Service and 

 Bureau of Land Management Congress should support existing laws where harvest goals are set and 

 pass new laws to guarantee a minimum harvest level in each forest so that the m i l l s , the families that 

 are supported by them and the communities that are dependent on them can survive. 

 AgreeJ^r Disagree J 



Wilderness 



8. The Tongass National Forest is 1/3 wilderness. Congress should do a regional economic impact analy- 

 sis of each Wilderness proposal (in the Tongass and elsewhere) prior to passage to consider whether the 

 additional Wilderness will damage the social and economic balance in the affected area. No Wilderness 

 Bill should pass Congress without this regional economic impact analysis. I support Federal funding to 

 compensate individuals, communities and businesses that are injured because federal wilderness addi- 

 tions jeopardize a region's existing economic infrastructure. 



Agree J^K Disagree □ 



Contracts 



9. I support the Tongass' long-term timber contracts, which were bid competitively and which helped 

 build and diversify a regional economy. In the Tongass, because most of the timber supply is on federal 

 lands, there is no other way to guarantee private enterprise a sufficient timber supply large enough to 

 justify the huge investment required to set up operations in this area. How will any person or company 

 doing business with the Forest Service or U. S. Government have the confidence to make large invest- 

 ments if Congress can simply cancel those contracts? 



Agreej*^ Disagree J 



10. Where Congress terminates resource contracts, the government should be forced to pay compensa- 

 tion to the local communities for losses sustained by individuals who made investments in homes and 

 farms as well as losses by business and local governments — all who based their futures on those contracts 

 and the continuation of those resourceindustries. 



Agree^J Disagree J 



1L Additional Comments mark here if enclosures) included: 



Fill in below to vaiidate vour testimony; 



Signature ~Q V^ -> -^M-^-^r- Pnnt Name \U^c^ SWu fa 



Address To 6o y 3 3.Sl~? 



Town 3^~<lc.o State A^ Zip ^ °t S O o 



Fill In below If this testimony Is on behalf of an association or other group: 



Name of Group/Company . 



Number of Members/Employees 



Please Include this testimony In the official record of the Tongass Reform Act 



o 



29_591 (^5?) 



