87 



utheast Alaska Co*^ servation Council 



SEACC 41'i 6th Street, Suite 328. Juneau. AK >i98Ul 



(QC^l 586-6-^4: phone (907) 463-3312 fix 



email: seacc<aalaska net 



STATEMENT OF 



ROBERT E. LINDEKUGEL, CONSERVATION DIRECTOR 



SOUTHEAST ALASKA CONSERVATION COUNCIL 



HEARING ON H.R. 2413, 

 THE TONGASS TRANSFER AND TRANSITION ACT 



BEFORE THE 



U.S. HOUSE RESOURCE COMMITTEE 



IN SITKA, ALASKA, JULY 3, 1996 



Mr. Chainnao, 



My name is Robert E. Lindelcugel, conservation director for the Southeast Alaska 

 Conservation Council. For the record, SEACC has already submitted more than 24 

 pages of wntten testimony to this Committee on your wrong-headed bill. 



Our guiding principles of free speech and informed decision-making by members of 

 Congress, have not been served by your hearing schedules and format. The totally 

 stacked deck at February's hearings in Wrangell and Ketchikan represented one of the 

 most outrageous attempts to build a record in your favor that we have ever seen. These 

 hearings look like more of the same. 



One of the most outrageous things about your efforts is this: You yourself have slated 

 several limes that this bill stands no chance of becoming law. We both know that you 

 can't gel this bill passed in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. Even Senator 

 Craig Thomas, who has introduced a bill to transfer Bureau of Land Management public 

 domain lands to Western Stales, has slated that your bill goes loo far. You are again 

 wasting the taxpayers lime and money by holding these hearings. These hearings 

 represent election year politics ai their very worst. 



One other note on hearings. We've heard you and others state that the House of 

 Representatives didn't hold hearings in Alaska prior to passage of the Tongass Timber 

 Reform Act. In August of 1987, members from the House Committee on Interior and 

 Insular affairs held an extensive fact-finding trip prior to taking action; a trip which was 

 aimed at listening to people from all walks of life and from communities, including 

 Pelican, Juneau, and Sitka. You failed to join the Committee on that trip. Furthermore, 

 the Senate held two hearings in Sitka and Ketchikan prior to taking action on the TTRA. 



LYNN CANAL CONSERVATION Hiiiio • FRIENDS OT GLACIER BAY. Cusu-oo • FRIENns OF BERNERS BAY. Juoeju 



WRA-NGEIX RESOURCE COUNCIL • ALASKA SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FOREST DWELLERS. Poioi Biker • PELICAN FORESTRY COUNCIL 



ALASKANS FOR JLINEAU* NARROWS CONSERVA HON COALITION, Ptlmbutj • TONGASS CONSERVATION SOCIETY. Kcidi.kjii 



CHICHACK)F CO^6ERVATI0N COUNCIL, Ttojtee • RINEAU GROUP SIERRA CLUB •SITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETY 



TAKU CONSERVATION SOCIETY, luneau • PRJNCE OF WALES CONSERVATION LEAGLft Craij • YAKUT AT RESOURCE CONSERVATION COUNCIL 



