248 



a balance between all of these competing demands and that after 

 all is the job that we are electing to try to find. 



I greatly appreciate your being with us and Mr. Cook, I greatly 

 appreciate your gift of the shirt. 



Senator Murkowski. I want to thank the panels as well. We did 

 not come here to take the shirts off your back and I think we ought 

 to give the gentleman back his shirt. 



Mr. Cook. I do not want it, keep it. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you, thank you anjrway. 



If we might have Peggy Garrison, Nancy Watt, Walt Begalka, 

 Ken Funk, Jim Bruce and Ed Prefontaine. Next will be John Blu- 

 baum, Roger Arriola, David Bray, Steve Connelly, Brad Finney and 

 Robert Elliot. 



We will start with Ms. Garrison. 



STATEMENT OF PEGGY GARRISON 



Ms. Garrison. I am Peggy Garrison and I am just one of more 

 than a thousand, many thousand people whose livelihood depends 

 on the timber industry in southeast Alaska. 



I have lived in the Tongass National Forest for more than nine 

 years, this is where my husband and I have raised our children and 

 where we work, where we recreate, where we have bought land 

 and where we hope to retire. The Tongass National Forest is our 

 home. 



The timber industry offers us the security of permanent personal 

 economic stability. This in turn allows us to maintain a life style of 

 our choice which is directly related to the scenic beauty and recre- 

 ational opportunities available in the Tongass National Forest and 

 southeast Alaska. 



I sincerely believe that the passage of Senator Wirth's Bill 346 

 will have the same economic consequence to thousands of people 

 living and working in southeast Alaska as the Valdez oil spill has 

 had on the economic base of Prince William Sound, with one obvi- 

 ous difference — there will be no Exxon funds available to help 

 make up the lost paychecks in the Tongass. 



Perhaps the loss of jobs for thousands of Alaskans and the result- 

 ing economic turmoil forced upon hundreds of families is of little 

 consequence to people from New York or Colorado. It is, however, 

 of utmost importance to those of us that depend on the Forest 

 Service and the 50-year contract to maintain a viable and stable 

 timber industry in southeast Alaska. 



I would dare to hope that any elected official who has the oppor- 

 tunity to vote on the Wirth Bill or any similar bill now or in the 

 future will take a long, hard look at what the economic conse- 

 quences may be to the people most affected, the people who live 

 and work in the Tongass. 



We do not need more wilderness simply for the sake of wilder- 

 ness. We do need however the continuing opportunity to earn an 

 honest living from a renewable resource, timber. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you, Ms. Garrison. 



Ms. Watt is not here I gather. 



Mr. Begalka? 



