20 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE LEONARD, UNITED STATES FOREST 

 SERVICE [RETIRED], VIRGINIA 



Mr. Leonard. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be be- 

 fore this committee once again to talk about the Tongass Forest. 

 I would like to make just a few simple background statements with 

 regard to the Tongass and then respond to any questions you or 

 other members of the committee may have. 



I think it is important for this committee to be aware of the fact 

 that the Tongass contains some of the most productive timberland 

 in the world. The area of productive timberland planned for timber 

 harvest on the Tongass is relatively small, only about five percent 

 of the forest, 1.2 million acres, but that portion of the Tongass is 

 particularly well suited for sustained-yield management of the tim- 

 ber and related resources. And for those members of the Agri- 

 culture Committee that are here, you know that if you are going 

 to manage agricultural lands, you manage your best lands for agri- 

 culture, not your poorest. In this case, we ought to be managing 

 the best land for timber production, and they are represented well 

 on that 1.2 million acres on the Tongass. 



The productive nature of the Tongass has been recognized for a 

 long time and the fact that there needs to be a market for that por- 

 tion of the timber on the Tongass that is not suitable for the manu- 

 facture of lumber. In fact, there were proposals dating clear back 

 to the '20's and '30's for the development of pulp mills. A major ra- 

 tionale for the timber sales that were made in the '50's, the two 

 long-term timber sales that we are talking about here today, was 

 employment. In the depression years of the '30's the mines in those 

 small towns closed and also by the end of the late '30's there was 

 a significant decline in the salmon fishery. Many of the small can- 

 neries had closed and there was substantial concern about the fate 

 of the small towns in Southeast Alaska. 



The use of the available timber resource was the obvious answer. 

 You had a very rich, productive timber resource. In fact, studies 

 showed that you had a timber resource capable of supporting about 

 five pulp mills at the time. In fact, four large pulp sales were of- 

 ifered over the years in the early '50's, and ultimately two pulp 

 mills, the Ketchikan Pulp Mill at Ward Cove, just outside of Ketch- 

 ikan, and the Alaska Lumber and Pulp Mill at Sitka. 



One other contractor was unable to build a pulp mill and that 

 sale was substantially modified and reduced and was operated by 

 Alaska Lumber and Pulp Company. And the fourth contract got 

 tied up almost endlessly in environmental litigation and ultimately 

 the purchaser concluded that it was not economical to go ahead, so 

 that contract was canceled. 



Operations of the two pulp mills in Alaska did contribute signifi- 

 cantly to the economy and stability of Ketchikan and Sitka and 

 many of the other smaller towns in Southeast Alaska where log- 

 ging camps or other subsidiary facilities were built. The operation 

 of a pulp mill in Southeast Alaska is still essential to the economic 

 stability of those communities. It is true, as Mr. Lyons said in his 

 statement, that the recreation developments in Southeast have in- 

 creased substantially. And fortunately the salmon fishery has re- 

 covered. 



