336 



criticism was formerly directed, and put the Tongass on an equal 

 footing with all of our other national forests. 



Much of the testimony from Ketchikan has been prepared with- 

 out consideration that indeed the bills before this Committee cur- 

 rently eliminate the Federal funding. Additional compromises will 

 be forthcoming as a result of these hearings, and we certainly wel- 

 come them. Nevertheless, we must draft this legislation to protect 

 the livelihood and life styles of the majority of the Alaskans in the 

 communities threatened. 



Mr. Chairman, there has been some concern over the ability to 

 accommodate the large number of witnesses, and I regret that and 

 I would ask that the correspondence, including the notices and 

 other pertinent data relative to the selection of witnesses be made 

 part of the record. 



I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to the views of my 

 fellow Alaskans and thank you very much for the opportunity to 

 be here today. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you. Senator Burns? 



STATEMENT OF HON. CONRAD BURNS, U.S. SENATOR FROM 



MONTANA 



Senator Burns. I will be brief in my remarks this morning. We 

 have a very long day ahead of us. This is my first trip to Alaska, 

 and I have come here to listen to Alaskans. I come from the State 

 of Montana and I bring you greetings from the great state of Mon- 

 tana as one flatlander to another, and it is a pleasure for me to be 

 here. 



Even though we just arrived, I can see that we have similar situ- 

 ations. The only thing is that your state dwarfs my own, but we 

 have common problems. We depend on tourism for much of our 

 economy. We also depend on timber products, an industry that pro- 

 vides a lot of our jobs. These similarities and some other reasons 

 are why I have come to this hearing. We are very interested in the 

 eventual legislation and the potential effect that it might have on 

 my home state and, of course, the whole nation. 



More than that, I am interested in hearing from the people who 

 would be most affected by these deliberations. So many times, legis- 

 lation passes out of Washington that has social and economic 

 impact on those communities that will be involved. I believe that 

 decisions that we make on Federal lands must be done with full 

 consideration of local economies and local communities. 



I believe in a balanced use of our national forests, each forest in 

 the United States. They vary and they are unique in their own 

 makeup, and management practices will have to vary and be 

 unique to those individual forests. 



We have situations in the lower 48 states where the single use 

 concept is not working the best down there. Congress should avoid 

 micro management decisions. The current 450 million board feet 

 annual requirement may or may not be supportive when the cur- 

 rent planning process is completed, keeping in mind that there is 

 no mandate to cut that much but you can cut up to that point. If 

 the revised forest planning for the Tongass indicates that this level 

 of harvest is not sustainable, we ought to take another look, reas- 



