36 



ness withdrawals would not reduce the timber supplies below the 

 level necessary to support the Southeast Alaska timber industry at 

 historic levels of employment. 



Our bill does repeal — it repeals the off budget appropriation for 

 the Tongass timber program and the mandate that the Forest Serv- 

 ice make 4.5 billion feet of timber available to the dependent indus- 

 try each decade. 



Under our bill, the actual amount of timber prepared for sale 

 and sold and harvested would be limited by the amount of Congres- 

 sional appropriation, like any other forest, the sustained yield ca- 

 pacity of the forest and the market demand for wood products. In 

 addition, we would require that a sufficient amount of the land 

 outside existing wilderness remain in multiple use management to 

 support the timber-dependent Southeastern Alaska communities on 

 that sustained yield basis. 



Mr. Chairman, I think it is appropriate to direct the committee's 

 attention toward a few maps that would better acquaint members 

 with the Tongass National Forest. First of all, I have a map show- 

 ing land classifications in Alaska. 



Now the green, Mr. Chairman, are the national forest areas. The 

 green areas are those areas in the national forest. All other colored 

 areas of the map are federal lands closed to multiple use. The only 

 exception is the national petroleum reserve near the Beaufort Sea. 



Let us take a look at things for a minute and recognize that 

 there are a total of 365 million acres of land in Alaska; 216 million 

 acres are federal lands, of which 75 million acres are national wild- 

 life refuges, 51 million acres are national parks, 56 million acres of 

 the parks, refuge and forest are designated wilderness. Fifty-six 

 million acres, Mr. Chairman. 



Southeastern Alaska, or the panhandle, lies wedged between the 

 mountains and the oceans in the Southeastern part of the state. 

 There are nearly 21 million acres of land in Southeastern Alaska, 

 as Senator Stevens pointed out, an area larger than West Virginia, 

 or about the size of New York to the Washington corridor. 



The population of Southeastern Alaska, Mr. Chairman, is about 

 65,000. Again, Elizabeth, will you show roughly the area, South- 

 eastern area? Ninety-five percent of Southeastern Alaska, Mr. 

 Chairman, 95 percent is owned by the federal government; 3.2 mil- 

 lion acres of Southeastern Alaska are national park lands, and 16.8 

 million acres are national forest lands. 



I doubt if there is any other area in the country that has so 

 much ownership by the federal government, Mr. Chairman. Sixty 

 percent of the combined park and forest lands are managed as wil- 

 derness, maintained roadless, and excluding community uses such 

 as timber management and mining. 



Now, if we look at the map of the Tongass National Forest specif- 

 ically, we see that we have a 16.8 million acre forest. It is the Na- 

 tion's largest. The forest area is three times larger than New 

 Hampshire and larger than West Virginia. 



We have in this area 7.3 million acres of rock, ice, high-level 

 alpine meadows, muskeg. Shaded in the darker green area are the 

 9.5 million acres that are tree-covered. Within the tree-covered 

 area, 5.4 million acres are harvestable, old-growth forest lands. 

 These are the dark areas on the map. 



