237 



I hope that in the process of doing this you do not come in for too 

 much abuse and I am sure your superiors will respect your exercise 

 of your rights as an American citizen, just as we do, and I hope 

 that it is very clear to everybody how much yours is an exercise of 

 the rights of being an American and we appreciate your being here 

 and being as forthright as you are being. 



Mr. Weihing. Thank you, sir. 



Senator Wirth. Now Mr. Mehrkins is an economist and you have 

 heard a discussion earlier made to the reason for the Tongass being 

 treated differently and the fact that it was done so for the purpose 

 of protecting the job base; now essentially that was one of the main 

 things, going through the area of discussion. You were here at that 

 point, were you not? 



Mr. Mehrkins. That is correct. 



Senator Wirth. Now, putting a different window on that, did 

 that strategy for job protection work and will it work in the 

 future? 



Mr. Mehrkins. Basically that was the blueprint that the Tongass 

 Master Plan would have but what that failed to do was recognize 

 that the thing that — chiefly wanted — the only thing that controls 

 timber employment is man and the Pacific Rim countries, not re- 

 gardless of how much money we want to throw at this problem and 

 supply side will not be able to offset the supply and demand of 

 those timber jobs. We had roughly about 2,200 Tongass dependent 

 jobs in 1980; we spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $260 mil- 

 lion in 1986 and still lost half those jobs or better. 



Even today with the vast improvement that was still 40 percent 

 below 



Senator Wirth. Would you give me those numbers again, would 

 you briefly? 



Mr. Mehrkins. I will give them to you exactly; it is in my testi- 

 mony. Since 1980 we 



Senator Wirth. You are saying we spent how much? 



Mr. Mehrkins. Based on Forest Service information — now let me 

 correct this, there were 2,950 direct timber jobs in 1980, that is 

 fiscal year 1980, and employment gradually fell to a low of 1,950 

 jobs in 1985 and increased to about 3,200 jobs in 1988. Now these 

 for the total Tongass or total areawide employment. 



Now the Tongass-dependent jobs are only a portion of these. In 

 1980 timber employment was estimated at 2,500 jobs and has de- 

 clined about 25 percent to about 1,900 in fiscal 1988. I do not have 

 fiscal 1989 figures; I do know that they are slightly higher. 



Senator Wirth. Those are direct jobs that declined from 2,500 to 

 1,900 in 1988? 



Mr. Mehrkins. From 1980, 2,500 Tongass related jobs declined 

 now to 1,900 jobs. 



Senator Wirth. Tongass-dependent jobs are defined as what? 



Mr. Mehrkins. That would be jobs that would be tied back to 

 timber, that comes off the forest lands versus other supplies. 



Senator Wirth. Those are direct jobs? 



Mr. Mehrkins. Those are direct jobs. 



Senator Wirth. Now what was that, 2,950 in 1950 to 3,200 that 

 you had earlier? 



