55 



The first point I would like to make is that trees cannot move 

 from the exact place where they are bom. Man has been around 

 here for 2 million years, and the giant sequoias originated 10 to 15 

 million years ago. Some of them live as much as 4,000 years, while 

 man seldom makes it for 100. 



Dr. William Harlow, the noted dendrologist, pointed out 50 years 

 ago that these stands were making their last stand in the Sierras, 

 and how many more tens of centuries the big tree might maintain 

 itself was problematic. 



Over the millions of years, the sequoias have had just two en- 

 emies: climate and man. Climate we cannot do much about, and 

 man we can. 



My testimony concentrates on the bill's financial aspects. My ac- 

 quaintance with the Sequoia National Forest started in 1959. I was 

 a professional on the staff of the Senate Interior £uid Insular Af- 

 fairs Committee. Senator Kuchel from California, the ranking Re- 

 publican, and Senator Engle sent me out there. There was a raging 

 controversy over a timber sale on the Kern Plateau, and I was 

 thrown into the middle of that with a group of people very unhappy 

 from all sides of the issue, not dissimilar to the situation today. 



The Forest Service had made a large timber sale in the Kern Pla- 

 teau to the now defunct Mt. Whitney Timber Company, which was 

 located in Johnsondale in the middle of the Sequoia National For- 

 est. I have attached the 1959 report I did on it and a subsequent 

 analysis I did of timber sales after that period. 



The Forest Service lost money logging the Kern Plateau timber 

 from 1956 to 1983. Of special note is the modest expenditures in 

 that era to secure regeneration. 



The Forest Service record for these past 11 years is even more 

 compelling evidence of mounting financial losses. I have attached 

 to this summary statement a table that shows all the forests of 

 California and their record for the 11 years. 



The key point I would like to make about that is that the Forest 

 Service earmarks a big chunk of its receipts, and on some of these 

 forests they earmark so much that they are in a negative posture 

 financially before they even talk about the appropriated costs. Only 

 the Federal Government can do that. A private citizen could not 

 continually do that. 



The Sequoia is the weakest forest for this 11-year period of the 

 17 forests in region 5, of those that cut over 10 million feet a year. 

 It earmarked an average of $197,000 a year more than it took in, 

 before counting appropriations. 



Now, to put it on another basis, the Lassen National Forest in 

 northern California had $17 million a year left after earmarking. 

 That's a dramatic difference. 



To put it on a fairer basis of per thousand board feet, the Se- 

 quoia was $2.60 a thouszind in the red; whereas, the Lassen was 

 $100 in the black. And, yet, both forests earmarked about the same 

 amount of their receipts in dollar terms. The Sierra National For- 

 est doesn't lose as much money, but it does lose a considerable 

 amount. 



In 1991, Chief Dale Robertson wrote to the New York Times, 

 "Since 1952, tree growth has increased by 67 percent on the na- 

 tional forests." And the growth exceeds the timber harvest by 55 



