326 



In addition, a letter from Senator Murkowski's office has made two statements 

 we feel obligated to answer: 



15. "S. 237... does not mandate any timber supply goal whatsoever." 



RESPONSE: While technically the old mandated supply goal is abandoned by 

 S. 237, it instead mandates a more rigid timber supply direction. Senator 

 Murkowski's bill directs the Forest Service to achieve a timber Allowable Sale 

 Quantity of 4.5 billion board feet per decade. This legislatively mandates a 

 timber supply base. Who needs a goal when the base can never change? 

 Associate Chief of the Forest Service George Leonard acknowledged at the 

 hearing that S. 237 would require the agency to supply 4.5 billion board feet 

 per decade. 



16. Senator Murkowski's office went on to say that the new 4.5 timber 

 directive in S.237 "...certainly does not constrain the planning process any 

 more than the 5.5 million acres of Congressional ly mandated wilderness." 



RESPONSE: No other national forest has ever gotten a timber supply or 

 Allowable Sale Quantity written into law as a result of Wilderness 

 designations. The Alaska delegation claims that this was a special case 

 because of the high percentage of the Tongass that was designated Wilderness, 

 but twelve national forests have a higher percentage of forest land in 

 Wilderness than is found in the Tongass. Furthermore, the vast majority of 

 the Tongass Wilderness is rock, ice, scrub timber, or marginal forestlands; 

 only 80,000 acres of Tongass Wilderness (less than two percent) are considered 

 to be commercially important high volume timber that meets the Forest 

 Service's criteria for harvest. 



Congressman Harold Volkmer said the following about the 4.5 and Wilderness 

 after chairing over 20 hours of hearings on the Tongass in 1988: 



"The 4.5 billion board feet per decade, we were told, is insurance for the 

 industry against the designation of further wilderness. But, Congess can, 

 of course, designate additional wilderness, or not do so, based on its own 

 judgement about the needs of the country, so this provision of law does 

 very little and has, until recently, resulted in the Forest Service 

 preparing millions of board feet in timber sales which could not be sold." 



We urge you to review the attached side-by-side Murkowski-Stevens/SEACC 

 analysis. 



Thank you 



,y ; ; 



Bart Koehler 



Executive Director 



Southeast Alaska Conservation Council 



