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Our message is not heard in Washington, D.C. If the State of 

 Alaska was the decisionmaker, we would have the opportunity to 

 discuss the management of the Tongass with people we know and 

 that have a direct tie to the Forest. The State of Alaska would 

 work toward a sustainable timber industry. 



Alaskans understand the difference between the National Park 

 Service and the Forest Service, and I am not certain, with all due 

 respect, that the Members of Congress understand the difference. 

 The Tongass National Forest is the largest and probably the most 

 talked about forest in the nation, and people from all over the 

 United States feel they have a say in the management. 



Unfortunately, Congress seems to listen to the uninformed voices 

 over and above the residents of the Tongass. Alaskans understand 

 that we are not the owners of the Tongass, but we are the resi- 

 dents and our future is being sacrificed for the interest of others. 



Management by the State could reduce the lobbyist influence; 

 perhaps not the presence of the special-interest groups, but the in- 

 fluence. Our legislators would have the ability to visit the Tongass, 

 do on-site inspections, and with their knowledge of the forest they 

 would not be misled by inaccurate statements. If the State of Alas- 

 ka had taken over management of the Tongass several years ago, 

 Alaskans would have made the decisions on the Alaska Pulp con- 

 tract, and Alaskans now would be making the decision on the 

 Ketchikan Pulp contract extension. 



I support the concept of Alaska managing the Tongass National 

 Forest. I believe the State could contract with the U.S. Forest Serv- 

 ice and manage the forest through the present system. It appears 

 to me that the present management by the Federal Government is 

 not working, and if it is broke, I think we need to fix it. 



Thank you. 



The Chairman. Thank you very much, and I will tell you both 

 of you bring up a valid point. Louisiana Pacific, Georgia Pacific, 

 Weyerhaeuser, all the private-held timberlands with one-eighth of 

 the land mass are producing two-thirds of our nation's fiber today, 

 and I have talked to scientists that are not involved with the tim- 

 ber industry at all who will tell you that the State of our national 

 forest is in dire shape, not because of harvesting but because of 

 lack of management, and that is just for your information. 



I think if any of you watch the news, we have already lost more 

 timber this year in forest fires in the southwest — 2.7 million acres 

 of timber already. We will probably lose around 16 million acres of 

 our national forest lands. The optimum yield on an acre of land is 

 twenty units per acre, and now a lot of our national forests have 

 a thousand to 1500 units per acre. What you have got is you have 

 got brush, and we have forest fires. 



Now, some will say that is natural. In Southeast, you have a 

 problem, here, that many of you may not be aware of because of 

 lack of management. Now, we have a beetle in Southeast. Fortu- 

 nately or unfortunately, it is on private land and they have been 

 able to control it somewhat, but if it gets into national land, under 

 the present system, you will not be able to control it, and you will 

 have a totally dead forest. 



This is what we call management. I do think, and this is the rea- 

 son I introduced this bill, we have to look at the science and the 



