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The Sierra Club wishes to submit this written testimony for the record 

 of the Public Lands Subcommittee hearing on the Tongass National Forest held 

 February 28, 1989. The Sierra Club is a national conservation organization 

 with more than 500,000 members, including a healthy Alaska Chapter, with 

 groups in Juneau, Fairbanks, and Anchorage. Reforming management practices on 

 the Tongass Forest is an important Sierra Club priority. 



The Sierra Club supports S. 346, legislation sponsored by Senator Wirth, 

 along with 19 cosponsors , and opposes S. 237, a bill sponsored by Senators 

 Murkowski and Stevens. 



The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is not only the country's largest 

 and wildest forest, it unfortunately happens to be the most abused and 

 mismanaged unit. If the Tongass will be able to continue to be described in 

 such terms as "endless rhythm and beauty," as John Muir characterized the 

 forest over a hundred years ago, then significant reform measures need to be 

 enacted soon. 



S. 345 embodies many of the changes necessary to accomplish the goal of 

 putting the Tongass on equal footing with other units in the national forest 

 system. This legislation would completely repeal Section 705 of the Alaska 

 Lands Act, thus eliminating the annual give-away of $40 million or more and 

 abolishing a misguided mandate to provide 4.5 billion board feet of timber per 

 decade. Basic common sense argues that in these tight budgetary times a 

 "blank check" should not be given for such a huge federal subsidy, but instead 

 this appropriation should be made through the normal appropriations process of 

 Congress. Driving the wasteful spending, according to a General Accounting 

 Office report which found that the Forest Service squandered $131 million from 

 1981 to 1985 by offering timber when Industry had no interest, is the "rigid 

 per decade requirement." Under S. 237, an inflexible planning requirement of 

 4.5 billion board feet per decade is mandated. 



Jobs are the rallying cry behind which the timber industry attempts to 

 protect its free yearly fix --an automatic subsidy that would be the dream of 

 any private industry. As the GAG and others have pointedly demonstrated, the 

 huge Injection of federal cash has done little to maintain jobs. Despite $257 



