299 



Long term sale holders are granted exclusive rights to virtually 

 all green, standing timber. Local operators can log only blowdown 

 or other salvage timber. When local people need small timber sales 

 or personal use permits they are told that long term sale obliga- 

 tions leave no budget or personnel for other timber sales. Local log- 

 gers have difficulty getting sales put up for bid, or administered 

 adequately for this same reason. 



Every effort in which I have been involved, either to establish a 

 consistent small sales program or to protect non-timber resources 

 has come up against the same wall. In all things at all times the 

 long term sales come first, usually to the exclusion of other inter- 

 ests. This is not multiple use. 



A final note; I do not feel that a piece of land is locked up when I 

 or anyone else can go there to fish or hunt or do any of the other 

 things that are part of the freedom offered by wild places: These 

 places belong to all of us, and birds and bears included. That free- 

 dom means a lot more to me than the freedom to rob and exploit. I 

 would rather have these places and no money than the opposite. I 

 support the Wirth Bill wholeheartedly. [Applause.] 



Senator Wirth. Pauline Lee. 



A Voice: Pauline Lee is not here. 



Senator Wirth. Sara Hannan. 



STATEMENT OF SARA HANNAN 



Ms. Hannan. Thank you for this opportunity to share my sup- 

 port for Senator Wirth's bill on the Tongass Timber Reform Act. 



I am a life-long Alaskan and I currently live in Juneau where I 

 work in private competitive business. Length of residency should 

 not have any bearing on national policy discussion but on the last 

 frontier time in residence often equates directly to the respect of 

 your opinions. 



Fundamental tenet of decision-making in a democracy is that 

 reasonable people can evaluate the same body of evidence but still 

 reach different conclusions. With regard to the Tongass Timber 

 Reform Act we need to ask ourselves, who are these reasonable 

 people and what are the different conclusions? 



Corporations are not reasonable, they are profit-driven entities. 

 Their sole priority is to make money and pretense they raise about 

 concern for jobs for Alaskans is only ornamental. They are not con- 

 cerned about Alaskans working in the timber industry; they want 

 big trees for small money that can be chewed up into pulp or cut 

 into cants and sold to overseas manufacturers at enormous profits. 



Alaska has long been the destination of every greedy exploiter of 

 national resources but greed is not a commitment to the future of 

 the environment or the economy or the people. 



If you were truly concerned about Alaskan jobs, America's last 

 temperate rain forest, and the balance of fair trade, I urge you to 

 support Senator Wirth's bill reforming Tongass Management. It is 

 simple economics that a competitive free market industry cannot 

 develop as long as the major players get major breaks. 



Sound public policy cannot allow a valuable ecosystem that sus- 

 tains many diverse industries, such as tourism and commercial 

 fishing — granted the old growth of Tongass must be granted protec- 



