89 



SEACCiHe.nBiSui.dKiicooRR. 241 J 

 TVinx Bay. Alukj luly 5. 19M 



H.R. 2413 Guts 15 Years Of Conservation Law In Alaska 



Your bill totally removes over L5 years of hard-fought conservaiioo protections (and 

 compromises) adopted by Congress. It removes the protection of watersheds and 

 salmon stream buffer zones supported by commercial fishing groups, Native interests, 

 recreation and tourism businesses, more than 15 Alaskan communities, and the Governor 

 of Alaska. See Attachment 1. Congressman Young, you even voted to protect many of 

 these areas when you voted for the Agriculture Committee's version of the TTRA in 

 1989. 



The bill repeals all <he Tongass protections enacted by Congress in the Alaska Lands Act 

 of 1980 and the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990. 



• The bill repeals Wilderness and National Monument designations for places like 



Misty Fjords, Admiralty Island, Petersburg Creek, Chichagof-Yakobi, and the 

 Stikjne, Chuck, and Karta Rivers. 



• The bill repeals permanent protection, as legislated LUD II areas, for key commercial 



fishing, subsistence, wildlife, tourism, and recreation watersheds, including Naha, 

 Kadashan, Anan, Bemers Bay, Point Adolphus, Mud Bay, Lisianski River and Inlet, 

 Upper Hoonah Sound, Calder-Holbrook, Salmon Bay, Nutkwa, Yakutat Forelands, 

 Trap Bay, and Outside Islands. 



• The bill repeals minimum 100 foot no-logging buffers now required on salmon and 



resident fish streams. 



H.R. 2413 Would Hand Over More Than 200.000 Acres Of Prime 

 Public Forest Land To Five NEW For-Profit Native Corporations . 



This bill grants recognition to these five NEW Native corporations even though a careful 

 public review has never taken place that concluded that any of these corporations deserve 

 recognition . 



It is beyond belief that at the same time you are holding these hearings, you are trying to 

 ram this public land giveaway through Congress without a public hearing or debate in an 

 amendment to the Presidio Bill currently in Conference Committee. On top of this 

 outlandish giveaway of public forest resources, your Presidio amendment uses these 

 Native claims to achieve a primary legislative objective of the Alaska delegation -- to 

 delay the completion of the Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) Revision. 

 According to the Presidio amendment, the Forest Service would be required to consult 

 with the NEW corporations, fully consider and analyze all their recommendations for 

 land selections, report to Congress within nine (9) months an analysis of the impact from 

 these selections on the TLMP, and "incorporate all appropriate recommendations from 

 the Southeast Native Corporations" into the final TLMP. See Attachment 2 (Landless/ 

 Presidio Parks Bill Amendment, June 18, 1996). 



In a synopsis for the Landless/Parks Bill amendment, Sealaska points out that the 

 University of Alaska's Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) prepared a 



