400 





February 21, 1989 



Senator Tim Wirth 

 U.S. Senate 

 Washington, D.C. 

 20510 



Dear Senator Wirth, 



I want to thank you for your introduced legislation (S 346) that would 

 allow the Forest Service to plan and manage the Tongass National 

 Forest with the same expertise and mandates as pertain to the rest of 

 the National Forest System. 



First I should tell you of my background. I retired from the Forest 

 Service with about 29 years of assignments in various aspects of 

 forest management. These assignments included; writing a timber 

 management plan for a National Forest in Idaho, administering timber 

 sales (including a long term 25yr. sale) for the FS in Idaho, serving 

 as a District Ranger on two Ranger Districts, serving as a Staff 

 Officer at the Regional level in Montana and Alaska, and as a Staff 

 Officer in the Washington Office of the Forest Service. Since my 

 retirement I have served on the boards of several organizations 

 including, Alaska Natural History Association, Prince William Sound 

 Recreation Association and Trustees For Alaska. I am a member of the 

 the Land Use Advisors Committee to the Alaska Land Use Council, and 

 have served as a member of the team that developed the National 

 Recreation Strategy for the Forest Service. I also volunteer with the 

 Forest Service on trail maintenance, campground maintenance, 

 recreation cabin construction, and teaching natural history to 

 participants of Elderhostel programs. 



Top leadership in the Alaska Region of the Forest Service have on 

 several occasions stated that they are only doing what the "law" tells 

 them to do. I feel that they follow the dictates of ANILCA to a tee. 

 To do otherwise would result in opposition and criticism from the 

 Alaska Delegation. ANILCA is often interpreted as the only 

 Congressional mandate for management while other laws that pertain to 

 the operation of the National Forests are ignored or are of secondary 

 importance. For example, ANILCA contains exceptions to the Wilderness 

 Act of 1964. However, those exceptions have been loosely interpreted 

 to allow for the construction of facilities and for the use of 

 motorized equipment not authorized by either Act. In another example, 

 ANILCA mandates 4.5 Billion board feet per decade timber harvest 

 goal. As a result the Forest Service has invested many person hours 

 trying to deal with and justify the mandated harvest level even in 

 times of poor markets when common sense along with other laws and 

 regulations would suggest that there are many ways to contribute to 

 the economic stability of S.E. Alaska with expanded programs to 

 enhance recreation/tourism, wildlife and fish habitat improvement, 

 minerals management, and special uses opportunities. 



