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statement of the Gustavus Community Association 



regarding 

 Tongass National Forest Management 



I represent the Community Association of Gustavus, Alaska, a 

 small unincorporated settlement on the north shore of Icy 

 Strait. 



Gustavus people make their living primarily from tourism and 

 fishing. Almost everyone in town uses the Icy Strait 

 region's timber, fish and game as part of a rural, 

 subsistance-based lifestyle. Our way of life depends 

 heavily on the country's continued beauty and productivity. 



We are not against resource use. That includes logging, 

 which has gone on for years to provide local lumber, 

 pilings, firewood and the like. There have been some small, 

 for-export clearcuts as well. The country can handle this. 

 But the large-scale clearcutting that has been moving into 

 our vicinity in the past decade is another matter entirely. 

 We now know from personal experience that this is a form of 

 resource destruction, leaving the land ugly to look at, far 

 poorer in fish and wildlife, and wide open to various forms 

 of abuse that continue to degrade it for years after 

 l6gging. 



our goal is sustainable use of the Tongass. This means 

 logging on a scale and in a way the country can absorb. We 

 want Americans of the future to find deer, salmon, big trees 

 and natural beauty in abundance along Icy Strait, as we 

 have. The country can provide those things in perpetuity if 

 we use it in a reasonable fashion. 



We thank Senator Wirth and others for their efforts on 

 behalf of Tongass reform. Their recently introduced bill 

 proposes some important steps in the right direction. It 

 would make timber harvest levels more flexible and 

 responsive to a broad array of resource values. It would 

 force renegotiation of the timber contracts that have made 

 most of southeast Alaska into two private kingdoms where 

 guaranteed overharvest reigns, and which are off-limits to 

 small-time operators. It would cancel the guaranteed money 

 the Forest Service gets for such "enhancement" projects as 

 the 27 mile road from nowhere to nowhere along the Chilkat 

 Peninsula near our town. And it would give some key places 

 temporary protection from clearcutting. 



The bill does a good job of identifying areas of Icy Strait 

 important to the local people. The coast from Point 

 Adolphus to Idaho Inlet is the richest part of Icy Strait. 



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