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COMMUNITY STABILITY 



You will hear pleas to avoid enacting this bill to assure "community 

 stability". There are two missins ingredients in the "community stability" 

 concept . 



1. Private forest land owners are not required to or expected to use levels 

 of cutting that can be sustained. 



2. Timber companies never have to make a binding make a commitment to stay 

 in business. 



It is onlv the Forest Service that is urged to throw all "financial 

 common sense to the wind to meet an Allowable Sale Quantity. However, that is 

 not what the NFHA specifies. The 1897 Act provided: 



"For the purpose of preserving the living and growing timber and 

 promoting the younger growth... the Secretary ... may cause to be 

 designated and appraised so much of the DEAD, .MATURED, OR LARGE GROWTH 

 OF TREES... as may be compatible with the utilization of the forests 

 thereon" 



NFMA provides a stricter standard, dealing with the issue of 

 compatibility with the utilization of the forest in several other sections of 

 the Act: 



The Secretary ... shall limit the sale of timber from each national forest 

 to a quantity EQUAL OR LESS THA.V a quantity which can be removed from 

 such forest annually in perpetuity on a sustained -yield basis." 

 (emphasis added). (16 USC 1611) 



It is the Forest Service that determines the sale rate; but the 

 purchasers determine the rate of cutting. Variations between sale estimates 

 and actual volume result in the cut seldom being a match for sales over a 

 long period. Also the agency does not publish realistic uncut timber under 

 contract data. Thus it isn't clear whether sales cut more than the estimate 

 or the trends in uncut timber under contract. 



The 11 year Sequoia sale level averages 65 million BF versus a cut at 74 

 million BF. The actual cut has been only 75% of the 97 MMBF Allowable Sale 

 Level. The volume cut ran 13X above the volume sold, well below the ASQ. The 

 receipts ran 2% under the value of timber sold. 



The Sierra's cut averaged 124 million BF. The ASQ just dropped from 125 

 MMBF to 88 MMBF. The cut was 41X above the current ASQ. The average volume 

 cut also ran 22X over the 101 MMBF volume sold, while receipts ran 1 7X over 

 estimated value. 



The Sequoia cut, 64 MMBF for 1988-1992 and 46 MMBF for 1993 could drop 

 35 to 45 MMBF below the ASQ and not be a real reduction from actuality. 



The Mt. Whitney Lumber Company was located at Johnsondale in the heart 



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