48 



forest fires is probably a decrease in harvesting the timber. Any- 

 body agree with that? 



Mr. Matson. The increasing amount of fire is taking place, as 

 was pointed out by the Congressman from North Carolina, that 

 what is happening is the buildup in biomass without a harvesting 

 mechanism out there to help reduce it is causing these significant 

 problems. And fires are going to be a factor of life for some time 

 to come. 



And all this gnashing of teeth and wringing our hands over what 

 are we going to do about air quality and things like that because 

 of coal-fired power plants and so on, take a look at what is happen- 

 ing in Arizona and Utah with last summer's set of fires and so on, 

 and you can hardly see Zion, Bryce Canyon, or Grand Canyon be- 

 cause of it. And the rest of that stuff pales by comparison. 



Mr. Hansen. Mr. Phelps, do you want to comment on that? 



Mr. Phelps. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the problems 

 with the severe forest health problem with a significant number of 

 dead trees in the forest is not only the threat of fire, but the effects 

 of fires in that forest situation as opposed to fire in a healthy for- 

 est. 



The fuel load on the forest floor that results from a significant 

 number of dead trees will increase the heat of the fire near the 

 ground as opposed to crown flaring that happens in a healthy for- 

 est, with the result — and a documented result in some recent 

 cases — of literally burning the nutrients out of the soil and making 

 it sterile. And this has happened in the Pacific Northwest. We are 

 very concerned that this can and will happen on the Kenai Penin- 

 sula in Alaska. 



Mr. Hansen. Ms. Bailey, you pointed out that you were pre- 

 viously in California and that you and your husband had invested 

 everything you had in your own area there. And the decision of the 

 Federal District Judge — I assume it was the Federal District 

 Judge — on the spotted owl, in effect, took you out of business, and 

 that is why you are now where? Wisconsin? 



Ms. Bailey. Yes. 



Mr. Hansen. How many others do you think fall in that category 

 for northern California, Oregon, and Washington? Do you have any 

 idea at all? 



Ms. Bailey. Well, I am just going to look at my community now, 

 and if you look at northern California when I started in 1990 had 

 105 sawmills that were in operation. And when I left last year, 

 there were 48 left. 



So if you multiply just simply, you know, that 50 percent figure 

 by an average of employees of about 200 people, that is a signifi- 

 cant amount of people that have lost their jobs. And those are the 

 direct jobs. Those are the mill jobs. That doesn't count the loggers 

 and the people that service those loggers. 



When we did an economic survey in 1989, over 75 percent of the 

 payroll for my community came from the forest products industry. 

 And with the closure of the Sierra Pacific mill, that ends the last 

 significant forest payroll in that community. So the numbers are 

 much higher than what is being projected. 



You know, I heard figures — one government figure was 2,000 

 jobs work loss for the northern spotted owl, and I think that is ri- 



