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Senator Murkowski. Thank you very much. Mr. Thomas, I very 

 much appreciate your testimony. 



You indicate your support for the mandate of 4.5 milHon board 

 feet per decade put up, as opposed to cut, because there is some 

 misunderstanding about it. It is certainly not the intention of this 

 Senator to propose that it be cut, but the question of the abiUty to 

 have it up, if the market, if the financing, if the forest can sustain 

 that kind of yield. 



My question specifically is, you as the second largest native log- 

 ging company in Alaska, logging the areas of many of the village 

 timber holdings, which can be exported because it is private 

 timber, into the Japanese market as opposed to Forest Service 

 sales, which must have primary manufacture — how long is your 

 timber going to last, roughly? 



Mr. Thomas. What do we have left? 



Senator Murkowski. Yes. 



Mr. Thomas. About two years. 



Senator Murkowski. And then for the most part your private 

 holdings will have been cut? 



Mr. Thomas. Yes, sir. 



Senator Murkowski. What are you going to do with that land? 



Mr. Thomas. As far as we know, it will be sitting there. 



Senator Murkowski. Sitting there growing trees? 



Mr. Thomas. Yes. It has been pretty successful so far. 



Senator Murkowski. So, it will be growing trees. There is noth- 

 ing else you can do with it? 



Mr. Thomas. As I understand, Sealaska has got some mineral— I 

 guess the exploration is going to be going through the holdings we 

 have. But as far as our plan — 



Senator Murkowski. Minerals are subsurface. 



Mr. Thomas. We have no future plans for the allocation. 



Senator Murkowski. What is your position in two years? Are 

 you going to fold up your tents and walk away or are you going to 

 continue to be viable? 



Mr. Thomas. We hope to continue to be viable. We have got over 

 400 employees that we have made an obligation to to try to keep 

 employed. 



Senator Murkowski. Are these all Alfiskans? 



Mr. Thomas. One way or the other. Most of them, after they 

 have been there for a while, they become Alaskans. I think prob- 

 ably 60 percent we have out of our village alone just within the vil- 

 lage 24 percent of the people are employed in the timber industry, 

 or what we call primarily stevedoring. 



Senator Murkowski. You are going to bid on public sales? 



Mr. Thomas. That is our intention. 



Senator Murkowski. There is going to be more intensity because 

 you will not have private timber. You will be looking for timber. 

 And I guess the thing that has been brought out here, particularly 

 among those that would like to see a sustained yield, is the fact 

 that everybody wants a little more land, but they do not make it 

 anymore, unfortunately. 



Now, in your testimony you indicated that support for utilizing 

 that portion of the timber that is now convertible into saw logs— 

 and I assume that— what would happen to your timber that is not 



