430 



it means very much to all of us because we are very small business- 

 es. We have almost no flexibility to adjust to a radically changed 

 economy. We have very few employees. We carry small inventories. 

 There are not many places to tighten the belt if we get into trouble 

 in the economy of this community. 



Also, because we are small businesses, lending institutions re- 

 quire that we tie our personal assets to our business investment. 

 So, if our businesses go down, we lose our homes; we lose every- 

 thing that we have. We have very little to play with here. 



My great concern is that the Tongass Land Management Plan — 

 and I was a member of the planning team that wrote that 10 years 

 ago — wound up with a final map which in no way resembled what 

 the planning team presented. And, I might add, it did not look like 

 what the environmental community wanted either. It was a map 

 that arrived at the last minute and was imposed on a planning 

 process that had been going on for a very long time and was en- 

 acted with almost no idea whatsoever as to what the ramifications 

 would be. I notice that the report that you have read to us from 

 this morning from the Forest Service was written almost seven 

 years after the Tongass Land Management Plan and ANILCA were 

 put into effect. We bought that plan without any idea of what the 

 cost was going to be. 



It is my concern that if you are wrong, if the economy does fail 

 as a result of this, and we have no way of knowing because our 

 planning process is incomplete, the very small people in this com- 

 munity are the ones that are going to pay the price. There will be 

 protections for the large guys in this whole scheme, but there is 

 not any protection for me or my family and those I represent. 



Thank you. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you, Ms. Sunde. 



[The prepared statement of Ms. Sunde follows:] 



