209 



fact be justified due to the land management decisions dating to 

 ANILCA. 



Should, Mr. Chairman, you and other members of this committee 

 feel that southeast Alaska is deserving of special financial assist- 

 ance because of the wilderness set asides, we would urge that such 

 funds be used in a much broadened program to strengthen and di- 

 versify the region's natural resource-based economy and to main- 

 tain and improve environmental resources. 



Another concern we have with S. 346 has to do with section 202 

 of the bill which directs the Forest Service to fully revise the Ton- 

 gass Land Management Plan of 1979 and, in so doing, to signifi- 

 cantly increase the protection of fish, wildlife, watershed and other 

 management resources. 



As stated by the Forest Service and other witnesses here, we be- 

 lieve this language comes very close to management by Congres- 

 sional mandates, and we would urge that such prescriptive lan- 

 guage be taken out of such bills and provide the Forest Service 

 with more flexibility and less bias during the planning process. 



With respect to the long-term timber contracts, to this point we 

 have not seen any information clearly identifying the effects of ter- 

 minating these contracts. We do not know what the effects will be 

 on the large pulp mills, on the smaller saw mill operations of the 

 independent contractors, or the native corporation on private 

 lands. 



We would urge that rather than terminate these contracts uni- 

 laterally, the Forest Service be instructed to enter into renegoti- 

 ations of these contracts with the pulp companies. 



Finally, with respect to the moratorium on the 23 areas identi- 

 fied in S. 346, we believe that because these lands have been highly 

 contentious for the past several years, it may be warranted to set 

 these lands aside from timber harvesting at this point in time just 

 temporarily to allow the forest management plan to be completed 

 while these lands are preserved without having any ecological 

 impact at this time. 



Our assumption is that in the short term, there will not be any 

 significant effect on timber supply available to dependent indus- 

 tries. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Gray follows:] 



