29 



The Chairman. All right, I want to thank both of you for being 

 here today. 



The next panel, panel three: Mr. Lewis, Ralph Lewis, Ketchikan 

 Pulp Company; Mr. Owen Graham, Timberlands Manager, Ketch- 

 ikan Pulp Company; Ernesta Ballard, Environmental Consultant, 

 please take the stand. We will go right down the line. Mr. Lewis, 

 you are up first. 



STATEMENT OF RALPH LEWIS, PRESIDENT, KETCHIKAN PULP 



COMPANY 



Mr. Lewis. Very good. Thank you. I want to thank the Chairman 

 and the committee members for the opportunity to present our 

 case. I would like to start off a little bit just by introducing myself. 

 My name is Ralph D. Lewis. I have resided and worked for Ketch- 

 ikan Pulp Company for the last 30 years. I started down in the 

 labor pool and worked my way up and was made president of the 

 corporation two years ago. I am one that believes in safety of the 

 environment and doing the absolute very best you can and looking 

 forward and trying to — and in trying to look forward, trying to an- 

 , ticipate what the next turns are and try to meet them. 



The contract, as just stated before, was basically started up there 

 to put some stability in Southeast Alaska. It has done — it has per- 

 formed that job. It is still needed to continue that stability. It is 

 the only year-round job, basically, that Ketchikan has. Also it 

 would be helpful throughout Southeast Alaska on Prince of Wales 

 Island and certainly Annette, where we have the only year-round 

 employment on Annette Island, which is the only Indian reserve in 

 Alaska. We have a lease with them. We lease that sawmill. 



We believe in the renewable resource that trees are that; that if 

 properly managed, that you can be there forever and it's sustain- 

 able. We have seen the fish at an all-time high. The tourism has 

 grown substantially, even with the lobbying that has gone on. A lot 

 of people have said the tourism would be destroyed. It has not. It 

 has grown. It will continue to grow. We fit together very well and 

 always have. We have the local tourist groups and everybody else 

 support us right along with the fishing groups. Unlike what was 

 said back in the late '80's, that it was going to devastate that area, 

 it has not done that. It hadn't done it at that time. I think that 

 time has proven that it is a good fit. And we hope that the commit- 

 tee and the Chairman can see that, can see that we do have a place 

 and would like to continue. 



I guess the main reason is to talk about the contract extension 

 and those corrections. We are not contending nor have we intended 

 to change any of the land use designations. We haven't changed 

 any of the wilderness that was put in the TTRA. We haven't 

 touched any of the other items. What had happened was after the 

 TTRA was put into place, the Forest Service made unilateral con- 

 tract changes. Those changes have already put APC out, who de- 

 cided they could not operate under that contract change. It has 

 done the same thing to us. Since 1991 we basically are a break- 

 even operation. 



I do not believe that that was the intention of the committee 

 back in 1990, was to put us out of business, but they need to un- 

 derstand that those changes that were made is in fact putting us 



