77 



Testimony given by Roger A. Stone 



April 24, 1989 



U.S. Senate Hearing on Tongass Timber Reform Bills 



Ketchikan, Alaska 



Member of Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce Panel 



My name is Roger Stone. I am 38 years old. I am a Banker 

 by profession. I am married with two children and I am an 

 Alaskan by choice, not by accident! When I first saw 

 Southeast Alaska In 1973, I was overwhelmed by a land full 

 of Incredible natural beauty rich In natural resources and 

 tremendous economic potential and Inhabited by people with 

 something very special in them and about them. It took me 

 several more years after that first visit to figure out what 

 that special quality was. Alaskans, especially those of us 

 who live In Southeast, not only live on the last frontier, 

 we in a very real sense are the last pioneers! Alaskans, as 

 I discovered are special because everyone of us who truly 

 calls Alaska home have been gifted somehow with a "Can-Do" 

 spirit. We believe that given the right opportunities we 

 can benefit from the mistakes made by those who have gone 

 before and learn the necessary lessons to do things right in 

 Alaska. The true spirit of Alaska is engendered by the 

 realization that we all live very close to the land and to 

 nature. All of us here depend directly on the products of 

 the land and the sea and the services that are needed to 

 support these resource extraction businesses. People come 

 from all over the world every summer to admire this great 

 land we are fortunate enough to live in. They gaze on our 

 life style with respect and even envy and maybe wish they 

 were hearty enough or lucky enough to be a part of the great 

 North. 



In 1978 when I finally had the opprtunlty to move to Alaska, 

 I left a solid career in a large coporate bank to move to 

 this last frontier to make my home. I took a job with a 

 small community bank and rapidly begin learning about the 

 local economy first hand. What I discovered was a strong, 

 but fragile economic interrelationship. Maybe a better 

 description would be an economy similar to a stool with 

 three legs. These three legs are timber, fishing, and 

 tourism. The economy has strength because all three of 

 these "legs of the stool" have strong long-term markets from 

 all over the world. At the saune time the economy is fragile 

 because the "legs of the stool" are subject to more than 

 just the normal forces of supply and demand present in a 

 rational market. The timber "leg" in particular is 

 subjected to outside pressures which threaten to "cut it 

 off"! I know that all of you sometime in your life have had 

 occasion to sit on a three-legged stool. If you recall such 

 an occasion you will remember that the three-legged stool 

 was quite supportive and though possibly not always 

 comfortable, it met your basic need for seating at the time. 



