293 



369 South Franklin street • Juneau, Alaska 99801 • (907)586-1911 



TESTIMONY OF JEFFREY SLOSS, ALASKA DISOVERY, INC. 



on S. 3^6 - the Tongass Timber Reform Act 



My name is Jeffrey Sloss. I have Morked as a guide for 

 Alaska Discovery for the past 7 years and have lived in 

 southeast Alaska for 10 years, working first with the 

 State's Natural Resources Dept. on National Forest land 

 selections and later with the Forest Service in Recreation 

 and Lands on the Juneau District. My next position was 

 Lands planner for the City and Borough of Juneau followed by 

 consulting work on various lands— related projects in Juneau. 



However, for most of the last decade I have worked 

 summers as an outdoor recreation guide in many of the 

 spectacular wilderness areas of the Tongass National Forest. 

 These include Admiralty Island National Monument, Russell 

 Fiord, Stikine— LeConte, Tracy Arm/ Fords Terror and West 

 Chichagof— Yakobi Island Wilderness areas. 



Alaska Discovery is the oldest outfitter/guide permit 

 holder on the Tongass National Forest, operating trips for 

 17 years around southeast Alaska, based from the communities 

 of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Angoon, Tenakee, 

 Hoonah, Gustavus, Pelican, Juneau, Haines, Skagway and 

 Yakutat . 



Our company is fully supportive of Senator Wirth's 

 Tongass Timber Reform Act (S. 3^6) and we thank you for 

 introducing it. We favor seeing management of the Tongass 

 shift from heavily subsidized large— scale timber harvesting 

 to a more balanced and economically sound program which 

 would include diversified smaller logging operations along 

 with wildlife and recreation management. Therefore we 

 support S. 346; the repeal of sections 705<a) and 705(d) of 

 ANILCA, and cancelation of the two 50 year timber contracts, 

 replacing them with conventional short term, competitively 

 bid sales. 



Commercial and non-commercial recreation demand on the 

 Tongass has soared since 1980. Even the vast Juneau 

 Icefield, 1500 square miles of permanent glaciers and 

 snowfields, has recently been zoned by the Forest Service 

 into 10 recreation management areas. Forest Service figures 

 (RIM) indicate an overall increase of 100% in recreational 

 use on the Tongass between 1975 and 1983. Tourism and 

 recreation is now second only to State government in the 

 number of jobs provided in southeast Alaska. Alaska 

 Discovery's business has grown by over 300% in the past 8 

 years. 



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