11 



Mr. Crapo. Do you have any information you can give the com- 

 mittee as to whether he is or the Department is looking at the im- 

 pact on not only the pulp company but the economy of the region 

 if the company is not allowed to continue to have a contractual re- 

 lationship in this area? 



Mr. Lyons. Congressman, the contract as it currently stands ex- 

 pires in the year 2004. Our focus immediately is on completing the 

 Tongass land management planning process, which will allow us to 

 understand what constitutes a sustainable level of timber harvest 

 on the Tongass. We feel, in fact, seven of the ten alternatives iden- 

 tified in that land management plan would provide adequate vol- 

 ume to meet what we understand to be the current contract obliga- 

 tions for timber to KPC — and that is in dispute. It is litigation with 

 KPC — as well as a substantial volume of timber to address the 

 independent sale program, the small business program on the 

 Tongass. So we feel we can and we will meet our contract obliga- 

 tions. That option is open. 



Mr. Crapo. And that would extend beyond the contract term if 

 one of those documents were to work out to be acceptable volume? 



Mr. Lyons. Our view is there is sufficient volume that that could 

 in fact be the case. 



Mr. Crapo. All right, thank you. 



The Chairman. Any questions on this side? 



Mr. COOLEY. I have one, Mr. Chair. 



The Chairman. Mr. Cooley. 



Mr. Cooley. Yes, can you tell us what the maximum harvest 

 level is for Tongass right now? 



Mr. Lyons. If I could, Congressman, I would defer to Mr. Janik, 

 who would be in better position to address that. 



Mr. Janik. I will have to answer that in two parts. The current 

 forest plan, the one we are operating under now, has a calculated 

 allowable sale quantity of 450 million board feet. Over the past sev- 

 eral years, we have been offering up approximately 300 to 320 to 

 330 million board feet. That is the maximum we have been able to 

 move forward through the system based on the additional require- 

 ments that we have been facing. 



The draft environmental impact statement that is out for public 

 review right now as part of the revision identifies a calculated al- 

 lowable sale quantity of about 357 million board feet, but that is 

 qualified in the document in terms of what we believe will be eco- 

 nomic to the timber industry, and that estimate, which is the more 

 pertinent one in terms of the interest of the industry, is 300 million 

 board feet. I believe the actual figure is 297. 



And it is based on that number that there is a statement in the 

 environmental impact statement basically saying that that is 

 enough timber to satisfy what we believe to be the contract obliga- 

 tion of the Ketchikan Pulp Company as well as provide about 100 

 million board feet for the independent operators. 



The Chairman. The gentleman from Oregon, out of a little re- 

 spect, Mr. Lyons has to leave. And he is excused. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Chairman, if we just might reserve to send 

 some questions in writing to Mr. Lyons. 



The Chairman. And then — but you have Mr. Janik. He is the re- 

 gional forester. 



