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profitable, gives the federal government a fair economic return, and creates a long-term 

 sale more like cin independent timber sale. 



Proportionality 



The proportionality provision of TTRA was intended to insure that a 

 disproportionate harvest of high volume timber stands was not harvested over a 

 rotation for einy group of contiguous management areas. In other words, it was to 

 address congressional concerns over potential highgrading. The Forest Service has 

 chosen to disregard the "over the rotation" direction and the "contiguous management 

 area" direction. Further, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that 

 proportionality must be measured by volume rather than by acre. Consequently, the 

 Forest Service must now spend millions of dollars each year to satisfy their own 

 internal procedures as well as the 9th Circuit's rule for a provision that applies to only 

 a portion of the annual harvests and accomplishes nothing other than to "assure" that 

 which the Forest Service testified during hearings preceding TTRA was being 

 accomplished amyway. These new guidelines could cost the Forest Service up to. 

 $400,000 per timber sale to implement. Section 2(c)(5) of this legislation would correct 

 this problem, ensure that the remaining 10% of the Tongass National Forest open to 

 commercial harvest is managed using sound, state-of-the-art on-the-ground 

 management tools, and save the federal government millions of dollars, while reducing 

 litigation. 



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