TONGASS TRANSFER AND TRANSITION ACT 



FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1996 



House of Representatives, 



Committee on Resources, 



Thome Bay, AK. 

 The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:40 a.m. in the 

 Thome Bay School, Thorne Bay, Alaska, Hon. Don Young (chair- 

 man of the committee) presiding. 



STATEMENT OF THE HON. DON YOUNG, A U.S. REPRESENTA- 

 TIVE FROM ALASKA; AND CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON RE- 

 SOURCES 



The Chairman. The hearing of the Resources Committee will 

 begin. I will have an opening statement and then we will draw the 

 first panel to the table. 



First, I want to say I am glad to be here in Thorne Bay. It is 

 the heart of Southeast Alaska and the productive area of Alaska. 

 This is where the production and the progress begins because Alas- 

 kans from Thorne Bay have an understanding of the Tongass For- 

 est. You are the heart and soul of the Tongass because you under- 

 stand the Tongass. You have built a quality of life that is among 

 the best. Your hard work shows, as does your understanding of the 

 land, but your views are often largely shut out of the decisionmak- 

 ing progress in the Tongass. That is because the Federal decisions 

 and policies override what the people in Thorne Bay know that is 

 best for the people in the land. That includes our Forest Service 

 employees. Many of their decisions are overridden by people in 

 Washington, D.C. 



I want to stress: Today's hearing is about a bill to give Alaskans 

 a better voice in the management of the Tongass. The bill would 

 allow our State to accept transfer of the Tongass from the Federal 

 Government. Once that happens, State policies. State managers, 

 would make the decisions that affect your lives. Imagine if State 

 decisionmakers were considering extending the KPC contract. That 

 contract would already be extended. Both our legislative body and 

 our governor agreed to support the 15-year extension, but now a 

 contract extension must be cleared through the Washington, D.C. 

 political maze, a maze created by Mr. Gore and those that follow 

 him. That is not right nor fair. It is too far away to make the right 

 decisions. 



Imagine the real consensus that could be achieved on the 

 Tongass Land Management Plan if decisionmaking was really done 

 here in Alaska, by Alaskans, under State policies. 



(45) 



