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Senator Wirth. Thank you very much. 

 Mr. Burette. 



STATEMENT OF ROBERT BURETTE, OWNER AND PRESIDENT, 

 DURETTE CONSTRUCTION CO. 



Mr. Burette. Bistinguished Senators and members of the Senate 

 Subcommittee, my name is Robert Burette and I am Owner and 

 President of the Burette Construction Company. Our company 

 builds timber access roads on the Tongass National Forest here in 

 southeast Alaska. I look around the room today and see many of 

 you are some of my own boys and know that they too are wonder- 

 ing why they are defending their jobs when they want to be at 

 work making a living to support their families. 



Through hard work, making good investments and being able to 

 save some money along the way, we were able to establish our own 

 business in 1986. My family lived in Juneau and because there was 

 little logging activity in the area I was forced to start up operations 

 on Prince of Wales Island. We had just come out of one of the 

 worst depressed timber markets our industry has known and 

 things were finally on the uphill swing. It is almost impossible to 

 borrow money from any source unless the creditor can be assured 

 that you have projected income or a job to repay the loan. My 

 creditors were satisfied only because I was holding a contract with 

 Ketchikan Pulp Company, a firm who in return was holding a con- 

 tact with the United States Government. What could be better col- 

 lateral? More importantly I felt that I could ask and expect my em- 

 ployees to suffer the expense of relocating their families to a 

 remote place at considerable expense to them in return for an em- 

 ployment opportunity with our firm. 



The company grew and I reinvested our profits into the business. 

 Our company is located in Thorne Bay and almost totally depend- 

 ent on a healthy timber industry. All of my employees live in the 

 Thorne Bay Area and our payroll alone contributes close to a mil- 

 lion dollars a year into this local economy. This is a direct benefit 

 to the community as employee dollars are spent in the local area. 

 Please keep in mind that our company is only one of several small 

 independent companies in the Thorne Bay Area doing the same 

 thing. We also support independent subcontractors and their fami- 

 lies. A dollar earned in the forest of southeast Alaska is turned 

 over many times. My vendors and suppliers in the region are paid 

 over two million dollars a year; these dollars stay in the region, 

 creating indirect jobs. Please keep in mind that mine is a small 

 company, there are over 100 small companies similar to mine doing 

 business here on the Tongass National Forest. 



Senate Bill 346 introduced by Senator Wirth of Colorado calls for 

 termination of the 50 year contracts within 90 days of enactment of 

 law. First of all it is obvious that there would not be the need for 

 independents as present due to the reduced timber supply. Some of 

 us will lose our companies, our employees will lose their jobs and 

 also we are told that if the contracts were terminated it would take 

 the U.S. Forest Service up to two years to prepare independent 

 timber sales and to get the system rolling. There are not many op- 

 tions for a company like mine. I cannot afford to build state or fed- 



