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lands in the timber base even when site conditions make 

 reforestation difficult and jeopardize attainment of future 

 timber harvest goals. 



S. 346 deserves support because it removes the incentives 

 for the Forest Service to pursue its institutional interests at 

 the cost of the public interest, taxpayer dollars, the future of 

 the last largely intact temperate zone rain forest on this 

 planet. 



Change of Circumstances 



What the public demands from its national forests in Alaska 

 has been changing in fundzunental ways, especially over the last 

 two decades. When it comes to two long-term timber sale 

 contracts on the Tongass, the Forest Service response has been to 

 resist change almost to the point of intransigence. The agency 

 has even ignored an express congressional directive to bring the 

 contracts into compliance NFMA standards and guidelines and to 

 eliminate the significant differences between long-term sales and 

 new, short-term sales on the Tongass. 



Since 1976, when Congress passed the National Forest 

 Management Act ("NFMA" P.L. 94-588) the Forest Service has had 

 seven significant opportunities to implement the explicit 

 congressional instruction on the long-term contracts but changes 

 have been minimal. The agency has not addressed the substantial 

 differences between long-term sales zmd new, short-term 

 purchasers. 



The House of Representatives recognized this on July 27, 

 1988 when it passed H.R. 1516, the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 

 1988, by a vote of 361 to 47. Title II of H.R. 1516 set out a 

 congressional finding that illustrates the need for change on the 

 Tongass: 



The Congress finds and declares that changes in the long- 

 term timber contracts prevent proper management of the 

 Tongass National Forest, have undermined fair competition in 

 the southeast Alaska timber industry, and fail to provide a 

 fair financial return to the United States, House Report 

 100-600, Interior Committee, May 4, 1988, at page 2. 



That such a finding is necessary 13 years after the Forest 

 Service was directed by Congress to make long-term timber sale 

 contract modifications clearly demonstrates the extent to which 

 the Forest Service has resisted change in the management of the 

 Tongass. 



This finding and the Interior Committee's report to the 

 House present a clear and compelling case for the termination of 

 long-term timber sale contracts in Alaska. Stated simply, these 



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