37 



Now we have the Tongass National Forest Map showing state, 

 private and native lands. The tan-colored areas, Mr. Chairman, of 

 the map show forest lands owned by the State of Alaska and the 

 Alaska Native Corporations, nearly one million acres. So you can 

 see that most of the area remains in timber, federal government- 

 held timber. 



Many valuable timber areas have been conveyed to the native 

 corporations in appropriate settlement of their aboriginal land 

 claims. Native and state-owned timber is not subject to primary 

 manufacturing requirements applied to forest timber. 



That means the private timber can go out exported as round 

 logs. It does not have to meet the requirement of primary manufac- 

 ture, which is the base job of secondary recovery. Privately-owned 

 timber is usually exported as round logs or chips, and therefore 

 really does not sustain the jobs or the saw mills and pulp mills that 

 the timber that is manufactured in the state does. 



In 1988, over 385 million board feet of timber were harvested by 

 native corporations. Nearly half of all the timber harvested in 

 Southeastern Alaska was harvested, Mr. Chairman, from private 

 lands. 



Now we go to the Tongass National Forest map showing wilder- 

 ness, and I think it is important to recognize this is what we are 

 talking about. The real meat of the proposed bill of Senator Wirth 

 and the objective of the preservationists is to turn Southeastern 

 Alaska into a total wilderness. 



Now, let us look at what we have got to start out. In addition to 

 the 1 million acres of state and native lands excluded from multi- 

 ple use management are lands managed as roadless wilderness. 



Colored tan — this is all of Southeastern Alaska — colored tan are 

 8.8 million acres of forest land that are off-limits to timber man- 

 agement; 5.4 million of those acres are permanent wilderness. Per- 

 manent wilderness, in our definition, is in perpetuity. 



Three point four million acres are managed for roadless recrea- 

 tion and old-growth ecosystem protection. These areas have been 

 set aside by Congress and the Forest Service, removing 70 per- 

 cent — 70 percent of the harvestable, old-growth forest from timber 

 production in perpetuity. 



Within the green areas which you will see are the remaining 

 areas available for multiple use management. Only 1.7 million 

 acres, or one tenth of the Tongass, can ever be managed for timber 

 production. 



Now, this is something, Mr. Chairman, that people just do not sit 

 down and recognize the reality. This timber management area will 

 be harvested over and over again in 100 year cycles, producing 

 twice the volume in second and subsequent growth. 



Anybody who has ever looked out of their hotel window in Juno, 

 or looked over Ketchikan or been over to Edna Bay and seen the 

 intensity of the second growth can recognize the significance of 

 what a balance of old growth and regrowth can be in a growing, 

 thriving forest such as the Tongass. 



Assertions that the Tongass rain forest is being destroyed or 

 clear-cut into oblivion are totally unfounded. Ninety percent of the 

 total forest and two thirds of the high volume, old-growth timber 

 will never be logged, and I defy any of the witnesses to discount 



