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in Southeast Alaskai between Native and National Forest lands. 

 Almost everyone believes that ^.5 million board feet per year is 

 above the sustainable yield. 



Alaska's Dept. of Fish &. Game has researched the effects of 

 logging on deer populations in the Tongass. Biologists predict 

 that on 3^0 drainages in Southeast, logging will reduce deer 

 populations by 50 to 75'/.. On 100 other drainages it will reduce 

 deer over 75V,. My family doesn't eat beef. We eat deer. What 

 about the people who live in the Native villages and small 

 fishing communities? They depend on those deer. 



What about our salmon runs? Salmon are the basic wealth of the 

 country. They are eaten by bears and eagles and people. They 

 are the backbone of our economy, and have been since the Thlingit 

 were the only people here. Continued healthy salmon runs require 

 high quality stream habitat. The logging is targeting exactly on 

 the stream and river valleys, where the highest volumn, easiest 

 to get timber grows. 



What about the effects of building thousands of miles of roads 

 through the wilderness? In 1950 there were less than 100 miles 

 of permanent road in Southeast Alaska. In 1988 there were 2,300 

 miles (omitting temporary roads). Current plans call for 

 building 295 miles per year, and more will be built to log Native 

 1 ands . 



One of the effects of those roads and of logging camps is a rapid 

 decrease in brown bear populations. Black bear can coexist 

 pretty well with people and roads. Brown bear cannot. The brown 

 bear areas in the Tongass are the mainland, the "A B C" islands 

 (Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof) plus Kruzof Island and 

 Yakutat. Last fall an alarming kill rate on the heavily logged 

 and roaded northeast Chichagof Is. caused the Alaska Dept. of 

 Fish & Game to close the area's brown bear season by emergency 

 order. Deer limits also had to be cut. To maintain the bear 

 population, the annual harvest can be no more than 5'/. For the 

 last ^ years it has been 2 to 3 times that. ADF&G staff who are 

 familiar with the situation do not have much hope for the long 

 term survival of a brown bear population on northeast Chichagof. 

 There is great concern about the decline of the few remaining 

 brown bear populations in the contiguous United States. 



