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was killed de-fending his -forest in Brazil. A lot o-f people don't 

 realize that Chico was really a logger. He wasn't opposed to logging. 

 Mhat he was reall-/ opposed to was de-f orestation. But, everyone 

 perceives him as anti logging. He wasn't anti logging. He was in 

 favor o-f a healthy forest and that was mainly his job. He was -farming 

 rubber and he was the head o-f the rubber tapping union in Brazil. All 

 they were doing was farming by going out and tapping the rubber trees 

 and receiving the latex from them for making rubber. However, he knew 

 that when a tree got old and started producing less and less rubber it 

 was time to fall that tree and utilize the lumber and plant a new 

 tree. And that is basically what we do. 



We are in the process of harvesting old mature trees and planting new 

 ones. Then when someone alludes to the greenhouse effect that might 

 be taking place because of the vast deforestation of the Amazon area 

 has nothing to do with the Tongass. What it does have to do with is 

 the lack of common sense management of their forest. When you see a 

 picture of a terribily large clearcut make sure you know where it 

 comes from, wheather it is on private timber such as the Indian 

 corporation. You will not see them on the Tongass, because it's not 

 allowed by the forest service. You folks know that, I know that and 

 everyone in this room should know it. But, the environmentalist or 

 these people who Bre trying to emulate Chico Mendes say, hey they »re 

 tearing our forest up. 



Lets all try in the future wheather we are fisherman, logger, 

 businessman, all try to emulate Chico Mendes and try to save a dying 

 forest. The way to do that is to harvest the over mature old trees. 

 Plant news ones and get a healthy forest going again. This not only 

 serves two pole purpose, as adding oxygen to the atmosphere to kind of 

 counteract the deforestation in Brazil, (if you would like to think of 

 it in that manner). It provides utilizing nature, it utilized a 

 promise that has already been given to the people of our great state 

 of Alaska. All we are asking is that when you try to make your 

 decision, try to think and emulate Chico Mendes. Save our forest by 

 allowing the forest service to continue to manage it in a proper 

 manner where we can all live in the Tongass. The fisherman, logger, 

 businessman, tourist, everyone is important and no one is more 

 important than the other person. But, the main thing is, here we have 

 a little piece of gound cornored in the great scheme of things that is 

 over mature and needs to be harvested. It can be harvested properly 

 and can be replaced properly. Lets don't talk about how the native 

 corporations manage there land. Thats their business. We're here 

 today to discuss how to manage the Tongass. 



Do not eliminate jobs without just cause. I maintain all Alaskans 

 live outside of the comfort zone but, we do so by choice. Don't put 

 an added hardship upon the small population of our state. One base of 

 our employment field will effect all of the residents of Southeast 

 Alaska. Each committee member probably has cities in your state with 

 more population than our whole state of 450,000 people. It is so hard 

 for such a minority ' of population to try and convince the vast 

 majority that we are not over harvesting and devestating the state of 

 Alaska. 



