Testimony of Bruce Botelho, Mayor of the City and Borough of 

 Juneau - 4/24/89 



I am Bruce Botelho, Mayor of the City and Borough of Juneau. I 

 wish to thank you for coming here to Southeast Alaska where the 

 people who will be most affected by your decisions live. 



I am here to present the official view of the City and Borough of 

 Juneau as adopted by our Assembly on March 6th of this year in 

 Resolution 1368am. I have attached copies of that resolution to 

 the written testimony I have submitted. 



The Juneau Assembly has joined other Southeast communities and 

 the State of Alaska in endorsing the Southeast Conference policy 

 position on the Tongass National Forest. We specifically 

 endorsed the version of the policy position dated February 21, 

 1989, with two amendments set forth in the resolution. 



I am aware that representatives of the Conference will be 

 testifying before you tomorrow in Sitka on their position so I 

 will merely mention the five main points. 



1) Clarification of the mission of the National Forest in the 

 Tongass to include an allowable harvest of up to 4.5 billion 

 board feet per decade depending on market conditions and subject 

 to multiple use values of the Tongass National Forest. It is 

 important to maintain existing jobs in the forest yet imperative 

 we protect fish and wildlife and their habitat. 



2) Establishment of a specific intensive management fund to 

 ensure that the U.S. Forest Service is able to make marginal 

 timber stands viable sales for the industry while sustaining 

 other uses of the forest. 



3) Setting aside 12 areas for protection due to the high values 

 of fish and wildlife production in those areas. 



Here I wish to emphasize that the Juneau Assembly has formally 

 gone on record in favor of also protecting the Mansfield 

 Peninsula of Admiralty Island from commercial timber harvest by 

 adding it as a thirteenth protected area. This is an area of 

 great importance to Juneau Residents. 



4) Providing for land trades, exchanges, or purchases of 

 nonwilderness lands to increase the timber base for allowable 

 harvest level (to include potential use of harvested land) . 



5) Establishment of an economic diversification fund for grants 

 and loans to provide opportunities to strengthen ta more diverse 

 Southeastern economy. 



