129 



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Salmon 



^><2^ Alaska's Original Summertime Outdoor Salmon Feed— Since 1971 



Box 020993 



Juneau, Alaska 99802-0993 



Ml 



907-586-1424 



22 March 89 



Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; regarding S.346 



Dear Senators: 



FIRST, tourism-recreation is the highest and best long-term economic use o-f the 

 Tongass. A quarter-million people visit Southeast Alaska every summer. They all 

 experience the splendid Tongass wilderness. I-f this splendor is diminished by 

 logging, the quality o-f their experience will be degraded; fewer people will 

 visit Southeastern. Tourism employment, which exceeds — and will far exceed, in 

 the long term — timber employment, will suffer. 



Consequently, our family business will be hurt by continued Tongass timber 

 harvest . 



We served 35,000 people in the four summer months of 1988; seventy-four per 

 cent were from cruise ships. We employ twenty people. We all depend on the 

 Tongass' unspoiled splendor to attract our clientele, for our living. 



SECOND, we serve only salmon. We depend upon the productivity of Tongass 



spawning streams. Unless very well regulated and policed, logging damages 



spawning streams, diminishing the supply and raising the price of our product's 



salient ingredient. Again, we depend on Tongass wilderness. 



THIRD, as a U.S. citizen, I advocate better uses for the Tongass timber subsidy 

 money. I'd put it all in the Head Start program, for example. 



FOURTH, as global citizens, we need the Tongass to recycle carbon dioxide. 

 We can't criticize Brazil for destroying its forests while we poorly manage 

 ours. We need every tree on Earth, and then some, to slow global warming. 



FIFTH, Section 302 of S.346 should permanently withdraw the listed areas from 

 timber or other development. Sive our children the opportunity to reverse your 

 Act of Congress by theirs, if they've compelling reasons. Recovery from 

 development damage in those areas would take decades to centuries. 



FINALLY, our family has chosen to live in Southeast Alaska these past eighteen 

 years largely because of the unspoiled beauty of the place. Harvesting the 

 Tongass diminishes the quality of our lives. Therefore, please let it be. 



Past decades of our short-term thinking — about many issues — will cost us 

 turbulent and uncomfortable decades, ahead. Let's think long-term, now — about 

 the Tongass, education, energy, security, etc. — to amel lor ate that turbulence. 



Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, 



William C. Leighty, Proprietor 

 Mancy J. Waterman 



t«ttached: photos of our business 



