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well as existing Forest Service wildlife conservation approaches was mandated by Congress in 

 mid- 1993 This review by nationally known experts endorsed the HCA approach but said it 

 needed to go farther, including protecting more land from logging, to adequately provide for 

 viable wildlife populations 



• Viapops Committee "Reconciliation Memo ." May 1994 This response by the interagency 

 biologist committee to the Peer Review of its work accepted many of the Peer Review's 

 findings and embodied them in a further series of recommendations to protect additional lands 

 from logging pending adoption of a comprehensive wildlife conservation strategy in the 

 TLMP revision and completion of necessary scientific studies 



. Anadromous Fish Habitat Assessment-Report to Congress . January 1995, US Forest Service 

 Pacific Northwest Research Station (AFHA Report) This extensive review of salmon and 

 steelhead habitat condition and management practices on the Tongass concluded (with 

 emphasis added): 



"Current direction for anadromous fish habitat protection on the Tongass National Forest 

 is less than fully effective, and additional protection is needed to make timber harvest more 

 compatible with maintaining high-quality fish habitat and long-term conservation of 

 anadromous fish stocks " AFHA Synthesis Report at 1 1 



"Current procedures for fish habitat protection are now applied primarily on a project-area 

 basis, consequently, the much more important cumulative effects of timber harvest on fish 

 habitat in a watershed are not fully assessed" AFHA Synthesis Report at 8. 



"[For the Tongass watersheds in which logging is allowed], 72% of these watersheds 

 were classified as healthy, and 28% had conditions with reduced condition " An 

 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Current Procedures for Protecting Anadromous Fish 

 Habitat on the Tongass National Forest . September 1994, US Forest Service Fish Habitat 

 Analysis Team at 15 (included in the AFHA Report) 



"The long-term conservation of a harvestable surplus of salmon and steelhead across the 

 Tongass is essential to the economic future of Southeast Alaska " AFHA Synthesis 

 Report at 1. 



Despite this evidence that less logging, not more, is needed to protect fish and wildlife, your bill 

 would prevent the Forest Service from curtailing KPC logging even if it were shown to be 

 necessary to protect these vital forest resources, which provide the basis for commercial fishing 

 and tourism, the two largest private employers in the region 



The Forest Service presently cannot protect subsistence in the face of any timber sale, 

 often because of obligations to provide timber under the KPC long-term contract. 

 Subsistence is protected under Title VIII of ANILCA. A new contract with a mandated 



