42 



think of is if somebody put a chip mill in and sell the chips to Can- 

 ada, who took our salmon. 



I do not know. I am asking these questions not in an adversary 

 position, but I am concerned, because there is an image being por- 

 trayed around here that there are going to be all these little jobs, 

 these other added values, but you have got to have a sale. You are 

 not going to sell one tree at a time. 



Mr. Morrison. That is correct. I will do my best. I am a geolo- 

 gist, rather than a forester, but I will try to act like a forester, 

 here. 



I believe that it would be very difficult on a small scale to do 

 other than take the very best timber that could be easily accessed 

 either from the beaches or from existing road systems. Taking tim- 

 ber from existing road systems would only be possible as long as 

 those roads are maintained. So it would require that there be road 

 maintenance, and that is very expensive and a very small oper- 

 ation likely would not be able to do that. So picking and plucking 

 individual trees that could be easily accessed from the water or the 

 existing road system would likely be the only kind of harvest that 

 would be occurring. Roads are very expensive to construct. It is 

 costing us in excess of $150,000 a mile to build logging roads, and 

 a very small operator wanting a few trees would not be in a posi- 

 tion to construct those kinds of roads. 



The Chairman. Again, I go back. I hear this term "value-added," 

 which I happen to support, but if you do not have a pulp mill, there 

 is very little chance for a value-added operation, is there? You have 

 got 15 trees, you have got one-value added tree, the rest are pulp 

 trees. You have to sell that sixteenth tree. 



Mr. Morrison. It would only be possible to do value-added with 

 the pulp if you continue the pulp mill or MDF or oriented strand 

 or some other sort of a process that could use that wood; otherwise, 

 you would only want to be taking out the highest quality trees that 

 could be used for other kinds of value-added businesses. 



The Chairman. If, in fact, my bill does not become law, like a 

 lot of people are hoping, and we do not have the pulp mills and we 

 do not have the saw mills, what opportunity will your employees 

 have for employment in the State of Alaska? 



Mr. Morrison. I would estimate that either directly or indirectly 

 approximately half of our employees are associated with the timber 

 program in one way or another. So without a timber industry, we 

 would continue with fisheries, wildlife, recreation, our interpretive 

 programs, visitor center in Juneau, and so forth. So we would prob- 

 ably be approximately half the size we are now. So here in Sitka 

 we would be looking at about 60 people. 



The Chairman. And most of that would be in the relation of 

 recreation, parks, et cetera? It would not be in the timber area at 

 all? 



Mr. Morrison. No. 



The Chairman. You would lose how many people out of Sitka? 



Mr. Morrison. About 65. 



The Chairman. Gary, I was listening to you talk about what 

 would happen, and you are right, but it reminded me of the com- 

 ments of Art Bomquist, who passed away — bless his soul. He 

 logged the Ketchikan area in the 1930's and 1940's and 1950's. His 



