487 



pacts due to poor logging practices. It is not clear exactly which 

 practices are harmful under what circumstances. My feeling is that 

 the areas that are proposed for protection are too valuable and 

 fragile to risk logging within them. 



This type of compromise that makes neither side completely 

 happy seems to me to be the only reasonable solution. We can have 

 jobs in the timber industry and still protect the interests of other 

 users. 



Thank you. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you very much, Mr. Thompson. 



Mr. Williams, would you follow on, please? 



STATEMENT OF GORDON WILLIAMS, ALASKA TROLLERS 



ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Williams. Thank you Senator and staff. 



My name is Gordon Williams. I am a life long resident of South- 

 east Alaska. I have lived here for my 38 years. I am a commercial 

 fisherman and a subsistence sport and recreational user of the Ton- 

 gass. 



I am here today on behalf of the Alaska Trollers Association, a 

 major fishermen's group of Southeast Alaska. We have a history of 

 concern for these issues because the majority of the spawning river 

 habitat for salmon is on the Tongass. 



We ask for a meaningful reform out of a genuine concern for the 

 effects of our industry in the current Tongass timber program. A 

 key word in the discussions of effects of clear-cut logging on fish is 

 the word "cumulative." While there have been some obvious im- 

 pacts, it is the accumulation of the smaller, more subtle effects 

 that will have the greatest long-term impact on our industry. 



Actions to protect the environment are often knee jerk reactions 

 to catastrophic events. There is no Exxon Valdez ground in the 

 Tongass but the long-term effects of habitat liquidation here on our 

 salmon resources have the potential to be just as dramatic. 



Old growth forest provides a crucial balanced habitat for salmon 

 for their spawning and rearing. It provides a canopy for the tem- 

 perature in streams. It provides a ground cover to control erosion 

 and flooding. It provides the proper nutrients for large wooded 

 debris that controls streams. Second growth forest does not provide 

 this crucial balance. Research shows that in one stage or another, 

 the second-growth process, there may be benefits to fish, but these 

 are usually more than offset by the negatives of the succeeding 

 stage of the second growth. 



Also, during the second growth period, areas are often more vul- 

 nerable to weather-induced events. Weather is very cyclical in 

 Southeast Alaska. The past two years have shown a return to 

 harsher conditions, which point out problems to habitat and fish. 

 We had a drought two summers ago that caused problems. The 

 largest of those problems was seen in areas that had had intensive 

 logging in the past. Heavy rains last fall resulted in many, many 

 landslides, and they were usually in or adjacent to intensively 

 logged areas. 



We just finished a very cold winter, and it is too early to assess 

 the damage. We expect there will be damage from this winter and 



