59 



can go to work and make a decent living, have health-care benefits, 

 and give our children a college education so they can become re- 

 sponsible citizens. Congressmany Young, we do not want welfare. 

 We want jobs. 



Thank you. 



The Chairman. Thank you, and I appreciate your testimony. I 

 think most of you hit it on the head. I have made this statement 

 before, and I will make it again. The health of the forest — you 

 brought up the idea of Mr. Glickman, now. This came right out of 

 Al Gore's office — that we cannot, under the congressional mandate, 

 salvage trees if there is any green trees amongst the beetle-killed 

 trees, blow-down trees, and any of you who have been in the blow- 

 down areas around here, there are always going to be one or two 

 trees standing. Under that provision, you cannot go in and salvage 

 it. The Forest Service says we cannot do it. Turn around, and it 

 stops the mandate of Congress, and I think that is going to be 

 questioned very closely by Congress, when it stops the mandate, 

 primarily for political reasons, because certain groups did not sup- 

 port the salvage legislation. Eighteen billion board feet of national 

 forest last year that could have been salvaged, 18 billion. Now, you 

 know what the average yield is — the average cut up to 1990 was 

 about 375 million board feet in the Tongass, and we are talking 

 about 18 billion board feet that are standing there rotting now. 



It is always interesting because you mention New York. Mr. 

 Morazic, for instance, Mr. Morazic, they cut a little over a billion — 

 I think 800 million board feet a year in New York State. Think 

 about that. They had 57 pulp mills in New York State. We have 

 got one pulp mill. One pulp mill is all we have. 57 pulp mills. And 

 on top of that, what I am leading up to — most of you, again, are 

 dealing with a national forest — the national forest is not healthy. 

 One eighth of the total land mass produces two-thirds of our fiber 

 today, and it is on private forest lands, and, by the way, they man- 

 age it for fish and wildlife, and their national forest is not. And I 

 think that is the real issue here: Who can best manage? 



We have a report from Dr. Needle that says in Montana — I think 

 in Minnesota that — comparison, national versus State versus pri- 

 vate, the national forest is the worst managed, and I am not blam- 

 ing the managers, necessarily. I am just saying it is required to do 

 nothing, and it gives us great problem. 



By the way, you talk about the logger enjoying fish. I understand 

 you were out busy today; is that true? Are you catching fish yester- 

 day and today? 



Ms. Gerrits. Yes. We came in to see you, and then we are going 

 to go back and fillet some more sockeye. 



The Chairman. Anything else you would like to add while you 

 are sitting there? You have the chance to 



Ms. Gerrits. I am not really sure where the Forest Service peo- 

 ple came from that were on the TLMP panel, but I wrote — I went 

 to, I think, five different hearings and each hearing I would write 

 something different, and I kind of got to know these people, and 

 I guess I am going to say that I disagree with the first panel a lit- 

 tle bit by saying that maybe at one time the Forest Service people 

 on the local level were even in our favor in this and that. 



