86 



The demand for wood products is increasing throughout the 

 United States. This demand is not going to change. The tremen- 

 dous increase in lumber prices and the additional cost in home con- 

 struction this Nation has experienced in the last 2 years is only a| 

 drop in the bucket. 



If the national forests, which contain some of the most productive 

 and well-managed timberlands in the world, are not available, 

 other areas in the world will be. We are presently importing 

 radiata pine logs by ship from New Zealand, in an effort to keep 

 our company alive. The fact that we are forced to go overseas, 

 while not effectively managing our own forests, really disturbs me. 



If this bill passes, we will be legislated out of business. But, more 

 importantly, the Sequoia National Forest will be legislated out of 

 business as effective natural resource managers. 



The Sierra Nevada ecosystem study is currently underway, in- 

 volving extensive scientific research throughout the entire range. 

 This study was authorized in the 1993 Appropriations Act, with a 

 cost of $7 million over the next 2^2 years. 



This bill proposes to remove 442,000 acres without the benefit of 

 this scientific study. There should be no land withdrawals on any 

 of the national forests until this study is completed, and the results 

 are subjected to scientific peer review. 



The basis of this bill, the giant sequoia preservation bill, lacks 

 quantitative scientific review, economic review, and a lack of per- 

 spective into its social impacts. 



I truly believe that a balance can be found in all natural resource 

 management decisions. The mediated agreement is a balance, a 

 very good balance, for the Sequoia National Forest. This agreement 

 ensures that through multiple use, all users and the resources are 

 protected. We just need to give it a chance. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Duysen appears at the conclu- 

 sion of the hearing.] 



Mr. DOOLEY. Thank you, Mr. Duysen. 



Now, Mr. Jack Shannon. 



STATEMENT OF JACK SHANNON, VICE PRESIDENT, 

 CALIFORNIA CATTLEMEN 



Mr. Shannon. I promised Larry I would let him go before me. 



Chairman Dooley, Mr. Pombo — I was wondering whether any- 

 body was going to stay or not. I am really sorry Mr. Brown did not. 



An5nvay, as a little background on my family, my dad's relatives 

 ended in the Porterville area, coming out of the South after the 

 Civil War. They settled in Porterville in 1868. My dad was born in 

 1890. We were fairly stable. My house is about a half a mile away 

 from where his is, where I was bom, and the house is still stand- 

 ing. But the property has since been sold and they planted a grove. 



My mother's family came into Utah in 1848. He ran covered wag- 

 ons across there for supplies for Mormons, for what they could not 

 come up with on their own out there, from the parties traveling 

 through. 



I am also here on behalf of 32 other grazing permittees on the 

 Sequoia National Forest, representing about 6,000 head of cattle. 

 Most of the cattle are mother cows. They are really concerned 

 about what this committee is going to do, because if they do not 



