162 



Section 705 has become an irrational and unaccountable policy of 

 excessive logging and roadbuilding and waste of taxpayer dollars. 



At this point it is important to distinguish S. 346 

 (introduced by Senator Wirth and 18 co-sponsors) and the measure 

 introduced by the Alaska Senate delegation. S. 327. The 

 bipartisan Tongass Timber Reform Act, S. 346, repeals Section 705 

 (a) and Section 705 (d) . It allows the Tongass to be managed as 

 every other national forest. It restores the flexibility for 

 supplying timber under a variety of market conditions. 



S. 327 does just the opposite. In fact, it flies in the 

 face of the General Accounting Office's (GAO) recommendation 

 that fundamental changes were needed in Section 705.^ In fact, 

 S. 327 retains the rigid per-decade requirement for supplying 

 timber from the Tongass that GAO found resulted in the Forest 

 Service spending $131 million (1981 to 1986) for timber sale 

 preparation and added investments to provide timber that was not 

 needed to meet demand. ^ Instead of following the common sense 

 advice of GAO, S. 327 would lock the Forest Service into the 

 inflexible position of continuing to prepare and offer timber 

 that it cannot sell. 



The tale of the timber industry in southeast Alaska is 

 really a story about social policy and institutional interests - 

 - a well-intentioned, systematic effort to exploit the region's 

 natural endowment of trees to provide year-round jobs, maximum 

 value added in the local economy, and viable communities. It 

 provides convincing evidence of the federal government's ability 

 to administer and legislate supply-side incentives, such as 

 access to publicly owned timber and subsidized infrastructure. 

 However, it also demonstrates that the government cannot regulate 

 major changes in market demand and social priorities. 



As a result, carefully crafted supply-side incentives have 

 become very costly and have failed to achieve their original 

 goals. Since passage of the Alaska Lands Act (ANILCA) eight 

 years ago, taxpayer losses on Tongass timber have risen to more 

 than $60 million a year and Tongass dependent timber jobs have 

 declined by as much as 48 percent. In 1988, Tongass dependent 

 timber employment was still 26 percent below pre-ANILCA levels at 

 1900 jobs. 



The Tongass, however, is by no means the only example of 



^. Tongass National Forest: Timber Provisions of the Alaska 

 Lands Act Needs Clarification, GAO/RCED-88-54, April, 1988. 

 Report to Congressional Requesters, Senator Ted Stevens and 

 Senator William Proxmire, page 38. 



2. Supra. , at 30. 



