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Bumper* Q&A 4/3 



completely than the current plan. In the revised plan, a wide range of more specific management 

 prescriptions will be presented. Standards and guidelines will be established for each prescription. 

 Wildlife and fish values will be addressed under each management prescription, with varying levels of 

 protection provided depending upon the emphasis of the management prescription. 



The final land use allocations for tbe 23 areas In question will be determined by the revised plan. 



HIGH-VOLUME OLD-GROWTH FOREST 



QUESTION 1 . How many acres of this vast Tongass National Forest consist of high-volume old-growth 

 stands -over 30,000 board feet per acre? 



ANSWER: The Tongass National Forest contains about 16.7 million acres, of which 5.7 million acres 

 are commercial forest land. Of this, 663,000 acres have stands of 30,000 board feet or more per acre, 

 or 3.9 percent of the total Tongass. 



QUESTION 2. How many acres of this high-volume forest have been logged on the Tongass since cutting 

 began under the 50-year contracts? 



ANSWER: HaA/est records by volume classes prior to the Tongass Land f^anagement Plan (1 979) 

 are not available. When the Plan was adopted, 277,000 acres of such high-volume stands were 

 scheduled for harvest over the rotation. About 32,000 acres have actually been han/ested. About 

 23,000 acres were harvested under the long-term contracts. 



Since the long-term sales began operations in the early- to mid-1 950's, they have harvested approxi- 

 mately 1 90-1 95,000 Acres in total from all volume classes. 



QUESTION 3. How many acres of high-volume old-growth are scheduled for harvest over the next rotation? 



ANSWER: The Tongass Land Management Plan scheduled 277,000 acres of volume in the 30,000 

 board feet or greater volume classes over an approximate rotation of 100 years. 



QUESTION 4. How many acres of this high-volume old-growth forest are protected for posterity in designated 

 wilderness areas? 



ANSWER: About 28 percent or 1 84,000 acres are in Wilderness. In addition, under the current Forest 

 Plan, 61,000 acres of this volume class are in land use allocations which preclude timber harvest, for 

 a total of 245,000 acres or 37 percent. 



Of the 663,000 acres of high volume stands, 277,000 acres are scheduled for harvest over 1 00 years, 

 leaving 386,000 acres or 58 percent uncut in the year 2079. 



QUESTION 5. How will the new timber stands that replace the high-volume old-growth be different from the 

 high-volume old-growth forests? 



ANSWER: The high-volume old-growth timber stands that are cut will be replaced by second-growth 

 stands which will average 64 MBF per acre. The average diameter will be somewhat smaller, about 1 7 

 inches. There will be less defect in these new stands. 



At the end of the rotation the acreage of 30,000 txjard feet or more per acre will increase to 1 ,552,000 

 acres or about 87 percent of the total acres that are scheduled for harvest under the current Forest 

 Plan, compared to 16 percent originally. 



