54 



The Chairman. I can tell you, you are right about the com- 

 promise. I worked on the D-2 land legislation, voted against it, got 

 beat. It was a great battle. Beat them in the committee, lost it on 

 the Floor, Udahl and John Anderson, signed into law by Mr. 

 Carter, and we thought this may be the end of it. I did not like 

 it then, and I said it would probably be just the beginning. 



Ms. Price. It has been. 



The Chairman. Like you said, six years later, we had the 

 Tongass Reform Act. We had comments from SEACC saying, "We 

 are not looking to eliminate jobs. We want a sound timber base." 

 In reality, they are back at it again with 1,400,000 acres. The 10 

 percent of the forest — and I have always said that they say this is 

 the better part. Let us trade. I will trade. You give me the 90 per- 

 cent and you take the 10 percent. Nobody wants to do that. And 

 the truth of the matter is that there is a concentrated effort to 

 eliminate any type of timber activity in Southeast Alaska, and my 

 goal in this bill is not just for timber. 



If the people decide that is not what is right, if they want to 

 make a park out of it, that is the people's choice, but at least the 

 decision ought to be made somewhere in the local area. 



I am reminiscing, now — I have the gavel, so I can do that — ^but 

 I remember where the Forest Service, right here, the regional di- 

 rector out of Juneau and the area director, made the decision, and 

 that is what was lived by. That was up until about 15 years ago, 

 and then all of a sudden, right now — like our enforcement officers 

 for the Forest Service do not even report to Mr. Janik. They report 

 to somebody back in Washington, D.C. They do not even have to 

 go through him. They make a recommendation; it has to go back 

 to Washington, D.C, so it is not correct. 



I do appreciate you, panel, and, Jerry, good luck to you, all of you 

 that were here, and we are going to be listening to the rest of the 

 witnesses today and hope you are able to hang around, and if you 

 have anything else to add to it, the record is open. Your written 

 testimony or any testimony you would like to get from your coun- 

 cils we would be glad to accept at a later date. 



Mr. Shafer. The only thing I wanted to add — I did get some in- 

 formation — we did lose, as of this year's school, 18 children from 

 enrollment. 



The Chairman. Eighteen? 



Mr. Shafer. Out of those people that have left. 



The Chairman. So we have what type of enrollment, now, in the 

 school district? 



Mr. Shafer. Under 120. 



The Chairman. Mike, my interest in this, I came out of Sitka, 

 and I have always loved Sitka — it is a great town — and everybody 

 says, "Look at the building going on." Most of those houses being 

 built are by retired people or outsiders that have the money to buy 

 the land and put up the houses. It becomes an old community. And 

 one of my fears in our society is — and I am there, so I can say that 

 without some criticism — a community must have the youth. They 

 must have the vigor, they must have the upcoming young kids in 

 the community to make it alive and viable. 



Now, Sitka may be able to survive with a retired system, but it 

 is not going to be a system that really provides a whole lot in the 



