47 



I hope this hearing today is not only a period of time in which 

 you can express your point of views, but I hope, also, you under- 

 stand it is a time to discuss where we are going, what chances 

 those people that are going to this school are going to have in the 

 future, whether they are going to have the opportunity or will they 

 have to leave the State. Are they going to have the opportunity to 

 be Alaskans, or do they have to go somewhere else? Are we just 

 going to think of today and not tomorrow? Are we going to look at 

 the facts or are we going to talk about rhetoric? Are we going to 

 listen to the inflammatory comments by certain large organizations 

 without looking to facts, to the scientific background of what is 

 going on in our national forest is around the nation, not just the 

 Tongass? 



We will have our first panel. I hope they are all here. Panel one, 

 the Honorable Shafer, Vice Mayor of Thorne Bay, Thorne Bay, 

 Alaska; the Honorable Elaine Price, Mayor of Coffman Cove, 

 Coffman Cove, Alaska; Mr. Don Hayes, Southeast Alaska Island 

 School Board, Ketchikan, Alaska; and the Honorable Jerry Mackie, 

 the Alaska State House, Craig, Alaska. 



Will each one of you please take the witness stand? 



I notice we are missing one. We will probably put Mr. Hayes on 

 when he appears later. 



Ladies and gentlemen — or lady and gentlemen, the way we oper- 

 ate this, you do have five minutes. The light goes, when you see 

 the orange light, and then the red light. I am usually pretty le- 

 nient, though I would prefer not to go for half an hour, and I say 

 this not in disrespect for anyone, because I know you want to say 

 everything you want to say, but everything you have written will 

 be in the record, and when the panel is finished, there will be some 

 questions, probably not a great deal but some questions from my- 

 self to you, and that is how we will proceed. 



I would also like to remind anybody in the audience that we pre- 

 fer not to have any displays either for or against. This is a period 

 of time which we hope to, for the record, find out the interests and 

 beliefs of what should and should not be done in the Tongass Na- 

 tional Forest, and I believe, Mr. Shafer, you are the first one up, 

 Mr. Mayor, and you are recognized. 



STATEMENT OF MIKE SHAFER, VICE MAYOR, THORNE BAY 



Mr. Shafer. Thank you. 



The Chairman. The mayor is not here, so we will call you mayor 

 today. OK? 



Mr. Shafer. OK. I would like to begin by thanking you for this 

 opportunity to speak about this important issue today. 



For several years, now, we have been living and working with an 

 uncertain future here in Southeast Alaska and particularly, it 

 seems, here in Thorne Bay. That such an uncertainty exists is 

 somewhat laughable in that we have no shortage of timber or lack 

 of those people willing to work as a livelihood in that timber. We 

 do, however, have a lack of faith in the ability of the United States 

 Forest Service to provide a stable timber supply to the communities 

 of Southeast Alaska. 



This lack of faith is also joined by a perception that the U.S. Gov- 

 ernment thinks that they know better how to manage this forest 



