183 



Congress on what to do with these areas, and in the course of that 

 time three operating plans would be completed for the two 50-year 

 contracts. That would severely undercut what TLMP should be 

 doing at this time. 



Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Edwards. 



Our next witness is Mr. Finney, General Manager, Alaska Log- 

 gers Association. 



STATEMENT OF DONALD FINNEY, MANAGER, ALASKA LOGGERS 



ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Finney. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, my name 

 is Don Finney. I am the manager of the Alaska Loggers Associa- 

 tion. The Alaska Loggers Association is made up of logging compa- 

 nies, saw mills and pulp mills throughout Alaska representing 110 

 separate companies and over 4,400 workers. In addition, there are 

 200 associate members which employ several thousand persons 

 both in Alaska and in the lower 48. 



Attached to my testimony is a copy of my November 5, 1987, tes- 

 timony before this committee in S. 708. 



Senator Murkowski. It will be entered into the record. 



Mr. Finney. Very good. Thank you, sir. 



The Tongass is not in crisis. It is a fact that in order to get quick 

 action on proposed legislation it is useful to create a crisis atmos- 

 phere. Accordingly, we have seen such things alleged as the Ton- 

 gass contributed to global warming and the rallying cry that the 

 timber industry is destroying the last great rain forest in the 

 United States. 



Along that line, I would like to make a point on the global warm- 

 ing concerning the Tongass that I did not hear in comments earli- 

 er. 



As the Forest Service pointed out, the old growth forest of the 

 Tongass is in a balance, so that its net growth is about equal to its 

 net decay, and there is very little contribution of oxygen or release 

 of carbon dioxide. It is just about in a balance. 



Also, the Forest Service testified that the second growth forest 

 that we grow will take carbon dioxide out of the air, hold it and 

 release oxygen. The interesting thing that they did not say is that 

 they are managing that forest, that second growth forest for a saw 

 timber forest, so that when that second growth forest is harvested, 

 almost all of the products from it will go into sawable materials 

 which go into housing and furniture and the kinds of things we see 

 made out of wood in this room which becomes a heat sink. 



So in the long pull, if you are looking to a global warming prob- 

 lem, the faster we get the Tongass National Forest under manage- 

 ment, the better it will be for that particular problem. 



The Tongass is not in crisis. To begin with, there are 16.7 million 

 acres in the Tongass National Forest, of which 5.6 million acres are 

 designated wilderness. 



In addition, there are approximately 2 million acres in Glacier 

 Bay National Monument outside the national forest in southeast 

 Alaska, making 40 percent of southeast Alaska statutorily closed 

 forever to any development. 



