65 



«m never be Harves.ed lor l:s rreesi- Above: Uorker. I"'""'""" '"'J' "Ji°,rom lagging 

 ea5< AlBska B„d rr,^de Mo llnjsbed ^ood produc.s else>.bere^ ^/f!'' „Wf „ s .c" e 5 <o sellle^enu 

 operations mite recreillor, opportunities more abundant and ghe residents 



or deferred timber lands, the way the 

 forest service budget is appropriated 

 and the long-term timber harvest con- 

 tracts given to two pulp companies as 

 incentives to build mills in Alaska in 

 the 1950's. Many complicated side 

 issues— the economics of timber pro- 

 grams, markets, job numbers, roads, 

 subsidies, regional employment cycles, 

 bureaucratic waste of taxpayer money, 

 fisheries, wildlife habitat— cloud the 

 issue There is so much misinformation 

 on the subject that no one can easily 

 discern the truth. Every fact by one 

 side of the issue is countered by one or 

 two facts from the other side. It has 

 created polarity of groups within 

 Southeast Alaska. A Colorado Senator 

 even tied logging in the Tongass to the 

 deforestation problem in the tropics 

 and the global warming trend, both 

 without justification. 



Tongass National Forest & 

 Southeast Alaska 



The islands and mainland sections of 

 the Tongass encompass 85 percent of 

 Alaska's Panhandle, that sliver of 

 America bordering northwestern Brit- 

 ish Columbia The "Southeast." as 

 Alaskans call it. is roughly 100 miles 

 wide by 500 miles long, stretching from 

 Ketchikan to Yakutat. About 45 percent 

 of the Tongass is without trees— ice. 

 mountain tops, and rock. One third is 

 capable forest, with most of the timber 

 stands composed of a fragrant mix of 

 Sitka spruce and Western hemlock. The 

 Tongass became a national forest in 

 1907, by President Teddy Roosevelt's 

 proclamation. 



The Tongass is wet country, Ket- 

 chikan's rain is measured in feet— over 

 13 feet of precipitation each year, 

 Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg and 

 Wrangell get about seven feet. This sec- 

 tion of Alaska fails to meet the stereo- 

 type of Alaska, There are no igloos, no 

 eskimos. no polar bears. The two 

 dozen towns here are connected by 

 ferry and air service, very few by road 

 Like Alaska, the Tongass cs huge. 16 7 

 million acres, equal to the combined 

 size of Rhode Island, Delaware, Con- 

 i necticut, Hawaii. New Jersey, and half 

 -= of Massachusetts. Most of Southeast is 

 » public lardi About 40 percent of all th' 

 federal land in the region is classified 

 as wilderness (in national park and na- 

 tional forest) Legislation coming 

 before Congress in 1989 could push the 



OUR LAND 13 



