104 



Mr. Leonard. It is largely mature timber which has a high 

 defect content within the log. It is logs that are no longer suitable 

 for solid wood products. 



Senator Murkowski. What would you do if you did not have pulp 

 mills? What would you do with that stuff? 



Mr. Leonard. They simply would be left in the woods and sub- 

 ject to ultimate decay. 



Senator Murkowski. In their old growth they do not assimilate 

 carbon CO2 like a new forest? 



Mr. Leonard. As long as the forest continues to grow, it makes 

 use of CO2. That is inherent in the growth process. On old, mature 

 stands you begin to get a balance between the levels of decay 

 within those stands and the new growth. So by and large, at least 

 in the conditions in southeast Alaska, we would regard the mature 

 forest as neutral. They are neither gaining nor losing in terms of 

 the CO2 balance. 



Senator Murkowski. As as far as forest management practices, 

 which are really the expertise and the professional capability of 

 the Forest Service — you have talked about multiple use and bal- 

 ance — if you did not have the two pulp mills, you have 40-plus per- 

 cent of the commercial timber base that is not suitable for saw 

 logs, and you either leave it in the woods or I assume you could 

 chip it. 



Where would you take those two chips if you did not have the 

 two pulp mills? 



Mr. Leonard. There is a market for chips in the Pacific Rim 

 countries, and it is feasible at least through part of the economic 

 cycle that you could market chips. 



It would be my judgment that if you lost the two pulp mills in 

 Alaska, effectively you would lose the timber industry from that 

 part of the state. 



Senator Murkowski. The other extreme would be to chip up and 

 then export the chips in a ridiculous situation where if you had 

 two pulp mills that were consuming those chips because right now, 

 we do not export chips. We consume chips. 



Mr. Leonard. We are not major exporters of chips. Minor 

 amounts go out, yes. 



Senator Murkowski. Where do they go? 



Mr. Leonard. Some of them have gone to Canada, and some go 

 to Japan. 



Senator Murkowski. Who moves chips to Japan currently "i* 



Mr. Leonard. I do not know currently, but over the last 5 years 

 there has been some from some of the independent mills. 



Senator Murkowski. I see. 



I would like to have you provide for the record any chip move- 

 ment in the last four or five years, because as far as I know there 

 has been none since the Baluga operation where there was a specif- 

 ic effort made through Mitsui to put in a chip mill of state timber 

 sale and export those chips, and as I recall they went broke be- 

 cause they are no longer there. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



[The information follows:] 



According to the 1988 U.S. Department of Commerce figures of Exports of Alas- 

 kan forest products, fiscal years 1984 thru 1988: 1984 was 11.6 Thousands of Short 



