311 



Testimony Before the U.S. Subcommittee on Public 



Landsi Parks and Forests 



April 2<», 1989 



My name is Judy Brakel. I live at ^^0 E. 1st St . i Juneau, 

 Alaska. I am here to testify in favor of Senator Wirth's Tongass 

 Timber Reform bill and against the Tongass bill introduced by 

 Senator Murkowski. I thank Senator Wirth and his co-sponsors for 

 introducing their bill and ask that it be strengthened by 

 providing permanent protection to the 23 areas presently proposed 

 for a logging moritorium. 



It is unfortunate that the location, scheduling and sign-up 

 proceedures for the Senate hearings, including allowing the mills 

 to submit lists of employees, have combined to produce a highly 

 unrepresentative set of people testifying. If these hearings 

 were being held either in Petersburg, where I grew up, or in 

 Juneau, where I live now, this room would be packed, not with 

 supporters of the timber status quo, but with people who want to 

 see a change. And I can tell you that in the weeks since the oil 

 spill people have become alot less silent and passive about the 

 ecological destruction of Alaska, of which Tongass logging is a 

 prime example. 



As a kid I traveled all over Southeast Alaska by small boat. We 

 were just looking at the country and being in it. Our whole 

 family did this for years and years and we never got tired of it. 

 Now my sons fish salmon and my husband and I spend suftimers 

 working as wilderness guides, taking people who come from other 

 states on kayak and hiking trips to see the country. Those 

 people want to see wild country, not logged off country and 

 roads. Logging is quickly reducing the places where we can do 

 trips. But protecting my livlihood is not why I'm here. 



Most of the people who are here to support the present system 

 never saw the country before the logging. They came from country 

 that was logged out to a country in the process of being logged, 

 and it looked natural to them. For myself, the massive logging 

 of the country I grew up in affects me too deeply. I try to look 

 away from it, and so far I have not been a good conservation 

 activist. It's easier to forget about the logging in Juneau 

 because that area of the Tongass has yet to be cut and the one 

 nearby timber sale was forstalled when a coalition of local 

 people sued the Forest Service. It's easier to forget because 

 thinking about it produces a deep feeling of sickness, like 

 thinking about the silent spring in Prince William Sound. The 

 logging is slower than the oil spill, but every bit as 

 destructive because its effects will last longer. 



We're supposed to be here supporting reform. I confess I just 

 want it to stop. Too much country has been laid waste already. 

 Some small scale logging would be OK, but nothing remotely like 

 the scale we've seen. One billion board feet were cut last year 



