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way to put the Tongass planning process in the same position that 

 it enjoys on other National Forests. 



Second, there are only 3.9 million acres of commercial 

 forest land not in wilderness. Of this, 2.2 million acres are not 

 scheduled for harvest, leaving only 1.7 million acres available to 

 protect the job base. This can only occur if there is sufficient 

 funding to provide precommercial thinning, construction of roads 

 into marginal areas and the Region 10 timber management budget. 

 Accordingly, with sufficient funding, the additional acreage 

 provides a buffer so that the 4.5 billion board feet will not 

 affect the planning process or the ability to protect other 

 resources. For these reasons, the ALA does not believe that the 

 4.5 billion board feet impacts the planning process any more than 

 the wilderness the Forest Service has already designated affects 

 the planning process. It follows that the argument to roll back 

 the 4.5 billion to protect the planning process applies equally to 

 rolling back the wilderness to protect the planning process. 



Some people have argued that the 4.5 billion constitutes 

 a mandated cut. The truth is that the 4.5 billion is an allowable 

 sale quantity which represents the maximum that can be harvested 

 for the decade. The amount that is made available for harvest each 

 year depends upon market demand. 



Regarding the long term sale operation, the following 

 points should be made: 



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