325 



Creek Road near Luck Creek and the area at the head of TVelve-mile Arm. 

 There are undoubtedly many more examples. (We are providing several photos 

 for the record.) An additional problem is caused by serious erosion of 

 roadways. Given the heavy rainfall, roads on steep grades or roads that cross 

 steep side slopes are often rendered useless after six months unless they 

 recieve continual maintainence. An editorial from the Prince of Wales Island 

 News summed it up best "Often we hear that the money the Forest Service 

 spends on roads isn't to subsidize the timber industry, but to provide for 

 multiple use. That sounds like a bunch of bull when you try to drive the 

 roads and find that nothing has been done to maintain them since the last 

 logger hauled out the last load of logs." (For an example of sound multiple 

 use, see the enclosed photo of a campground in a Forest Service clearcut.) 



13. Bill Thomas, representing the Klukwan Native Timber Corporation stressed 

 the need to consider the future demand for national forest timber sales from 

 Native corporations after they cut over all their timberlands. The Alaska 

 Loggers Association have termed these corporations "re-entrants" into the 

 Tongass timber industry. 



RESPONSE: How can these corporations re-enter the Tongass scene, when 

 virtually none of them have ever logged on Tongass forest lands? The cutting 

 that has occurred on Native timber lands has not been conducted on a multiple 

 use sustained yield basis. The Tongass simply cannot be expected to bear the 

 burden of trying to support the total level of demand caused by unsustainable 

 timber practices. (Please see the enclosed photos of Long Island, which 

 clearly show the heavy-handed cutting practices of Mr. Thomas' corporation.) 



14. Senator Murkowski also requested that we provide him with information on 

 how much timber volume would be added to the existing Wilderness if all 23 

 areas were granted protection by law. 



RESPONSE: According to recent Forest Service reports, our proposal includes 

 250,088 acres of commercial forest land which meet the agency's own criteria 

 for timber harvest. This can be compared to the 1,750,000 acres of commercial 

 forest land that is currently scheduled for timber harvest under the Tongass 

 Land Management Plan (TLMP) . Our proposal would reduce the acres of currently 

 scheduled timber harvest volume by 14 percent — leaving 86 percent of the 

 currently scheduled timber volume available for harvest. If necessary , this 

 reduced volume could be recouped by more intensive management practices, 

 re-allocation of land uses during the TLMP revision, and the utilization of 

 alternate sources of timber -- such as Native pulp logs and other available 

 volume. However, it will probably be unneccessary since the average harvest 

 level has only been 285 million board feet per year since 1980, and the 

 highest level since ANILCA has only been 340 million board feet per year. 

 These numbers are based on net sawlog volume, the same basis used for the 4.5 

 billion board feet per decade calculation. Estimates that are higher than 

 this include utility logs (defective, cull logs). Such inflated estimates 

 cannot be fairly compared to the 4.5 figure. 



