land outside existing wilderness remain in multiple-use manage- 

 ment to support the timber dependent southeast Alaska communi- 

 ties on a sustained basis. 



Mr. Chairman, it is my sincere hope that you and others will 

 keep a perspective on the many important issues that will be 

 brought to your attention by the witnesses, issues such as old- 

 growth virgin stands, clear-cutting, additions to wilderness and 

 buffer zones, free from timber cutting around our small communi- 

 ties and spawning streams, winter kill of our deer population, 

 along with beach and fringe stands of old growth to sustain the 

 deer habitat, along with the presence of the deer from both wolf 

 kill and hunting by man. 



The contributions of lush second-growth stands such as those at 

 Edmund Bay and Prince of Wales cut during the Second World 

 War and yielding tenfold, a new forest contributing as a sump in 

 assimilating carbon dioxide, a positive contribution to the world's 

 warming trend and the realization that nearly 40 percent of the 

 Tongass is deteriorating and dying and the only utilization is in the 

 form of wood fibre and not lumber for that timber we have cut. Mr. 

 Chairman, it is important that we include in the record the Ton- 

 gass Land Statistic attached hereto and I would ask that that be 

 included in the record but I will not read it at this time but I 

 would like to here praise the 5.7 million acres of harvestable old- 

 growth forest land in the Tongass, two-thirds already set aside for 

 fish and wildlife, recreation and wilderness. Two-thirds, Mr. Chair- 

 man, 1.7 million acres and one-third is already in wilderness in 

 perpetuity, roughly one-third, 2.5 million acres is managed for fish 

 and wildlife and other uses which exclude road construction and 

 logging and only 1.7 million acres or one-third of the harvestable 

 timber in southeastern Alaska will ever be logged. That is only 10 

 percent of the entire 17 million acre forest. 



Don Young asked me to emphasize the significance of H.R. 1368, 

 a bill reported by the Forest Subcommittee, the House Agricultural 

 Committee and the bill requires the Forest Service to meet market 

 demand up to 4.5 billion board feet per decade and it does away 

 with $40 million in federal funding and it is quite similar to my 

 bill. 



Mr. Chairman, our bill. Senate Bill 237, represents a compro- 

 mise. We have eliminated the $40 million annual funding. There 

 has been so much criticism directed at putting the Tongass on an 

 equal footing with all other national forests and additional compro- 

 mises will be forthcoming as a result of these hearings and we do 

 welcome them. Nevertheless we must craft this legislation to pro- 

 tect the livelihood and the lifestyles of the majority of Alaskans in 

 the communities threatened. 



I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to the 

 views of my fellow Alaskans. 



Senator Wirth. Senator Burns. 



Senator Burns. Thank you very much. 



STATEMENT OF HON. CONRAD BURNS, U.S. SENATOR FROM 



MONTANA 



Senator Burns. Thank you very much. 



