492 

 Senator Wirth. Mr. Mathisen. 



STATEMENT OF SIGURD MATHISEN, PETERSBURG VESSEL 



OWNERS ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Mathisen. My name is Sigurd Mathisen. I am a third-gen- 

 eration resident of Petersburg. All my life has been spent in the 

 waters of Southeast Alaska. I am very aware of the fisherman's 

 need to steward his resource and to protect the fragile natural 

 salmon incubator that is the Tongass National Forest. 



I represent the Petersburg Vessel Owners Association, a fishing 

 organization involved with the Tongass and impacts of logging in 

 sensitive salmon spawning drainages since before statehood. 



Petersburg Vessel Owners Association supports Senator Wirth's 

 Tongass Timber Reform Bill. We support dropping the 450 MBF re- 

 quirement. We support redirecting the $40 million Timber Supply 

 Fund, and eliminating the 50-year contracts. 



We would like to see permanent protection for the important 

 sensitive salmon spawning drainages that are included in the bill, 

 such as the Kadashan, Lisianski, Nutkwa and Chuck Rivers — vital 

 systems that should never be logged. The present language fails to 

 do that. 



I will use one prime example to convey our concerns and our 

 willingness to support this legislation. The Chuck River drainage in 

 Windham Bay has been over time one of the largest producers of 

 salmon in Southeast. It has steep slopes and very unstable soil. It 

 had a natural landslide in 1974 that nearly wiped out the salmon 

 run, and it took 10 years to rebuild, with record returns by 1985. 

 Yet, in 1985, the Forest Service began laying out timber sales and 

 planning to pre-road from 4 to 7 miles along the Chuck River even 

 though their environmental assessment said it was unstable and 

 could cause a landslide. 



We objected. We could not possibly fathom why a deficit timber 

 sale should warrant creating the potential of a landslide that 

 would destroy the river. Their answer was the 450 mandated 

 timber requirement was forcing them into these sensitive drain- 

 ages, and not only that, they had to pre-road to justify and main- 

 tain their timber supply fund. 



Even with emphatic opposition to this sale at hearings in Peters- 

 burg, they were going to go right on ahead with it. The only thing 

 that has held them back has been the State's Department of Envi- 

 ronmental Conservation's decision on water quality, and that did 

 not stop it entirely. The Forest Service then spent $2 million on a 

 road share with Goldbelt Native Corporation that would access 

 both this sale and Goldbelt land in the upper reaches of the Chuck. 

 This heavy push to provide timber, no matter what the cost, unfair- 

 ly pits loggers versus fishermen. 



I am not opposed to logging, nor am I opposed to pulp mills. I 

 think renewable resources like fish and timber should be strongly 

 fostered in Alaska because they will carry us through on the long 

 term. We are revising Alaska's Forest Practices Act with fisher- 

 men, loggers and conservationists represented and compromising 

 on solutions. 



