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My name is Lew M. Williams, Jr. 



I am publisher of the Ketchikan Daily News (PO Box 7900, Ketchikan, AK) 



I have been running newspapers in Southeastern Alaska for 43 years. I 

 have sen/ed in local public office, in civic organizations and on state 

 boards and commissions. Currently, i serve on the state's Citizens 

 Advisory Commission on Federal Areas. 



I support the legislation before you today sponsored by Sen. Frank 

 Murkowski and Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. I oppose legislation which 

 would reduce the harvest of national forest timber below 4.5 billion board 

 feet per decade. I oppose cancelling the long-term timber sales with the 

 pulp mills. I oppose adding additional acreage to wilderness unless the 

 revision of the Tongass Land Use Managment Plan now under way 

 recommends such designation after the Forest Service studies and 

 hearings are completed. 



I operated the Wrangell Sentinel and was active in the chamber of 

 commerce shortly after World War II when communities of Southeast tried 

 to attract a year around timber industry to Alaska. It was a long, 

 frustrating job. Now that we have a stable timber industry, it is important 

 to preserve it. 



Sen. Murkowski's legislation probably is the most reasonable approach 

 because the senator grew up in Ketchikan, graduated from Ketchikan High 

 School before there was a pulp mill or year around timber industry. He 

 served in the Coast Guard in Sitka, before that community had a timber 

 industry. He was a bank manager in Wrangell after the timber industry 

 was established, including a sawmill at Wrangell. He was state 

 Commissioner of Economic Development when Walter Hickel was governor 

 of Alaska. He has hunted and fished Southeast and knows the people and 

 the area better than anyone in Congress. He knows it better than most area 

 residents. 



The last time I testified at a hearing in Ketchikan before the senator, he 

 was commissioner of economic development and our newspaper had 

 completed a long series promoting a beach log salvage program for the 

 state. There was opposition but after four years, the state legislature 

 enacted a law that authorized such salvage. I'm pleased the senator is 

 back for another important hearing. 



Murkowski's legislation pending before this committee repeals the 

 section of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act which 



