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Native employment. At the same time, fishing and tourism are 

 booming and mining is growing. 



Currently, the primary force in management decisions on the 

 Tongass are the two long term timber contracts. The Forest 

 Service is severely constrained in its management choices by the 

 terms of the contracts. It is difficult, if not impossible, for 

 the Forest Service simultaneously to comply with the long term 

 contracts and achieve the myriad other multiple-use objectives 

 required by law, including providing recreational opportunities, 

 offering timber to independent purchasers, and protecting 

 wildlife and subsistence resources. 



Sealaska believes the long term contracts are an important 

 part of the regional economy. Nonetheless, they should not be 

 omnipotent to the point of making all other multiple-use 

 objectives subservient to them. The long term contracts should 

 not be the engine pulling the regional economy. Rather, they 

 should be one car in the economic train that is driven by the 

 forces of supply and demand within the multiple-use framework. 



1. REGIONAL ATTITUDE SURVEY 



In recent weeks, Sealaska commissioned an independent survey 

 of Southeast Alaska residents to determine their attitudes on the 

 Tongass reform legislation and their expectations about the 

 future of the Tongass. There were a number of surprising results 

 from the survey, but perhaps the most significant were the 

 answers to the following three questions. 



