503 



Senator Murkowski. Well, you have my train of thought, and 

 you can give us some more information. 



Senator Wirth. I just want to remind my good friend from 

 Alaska that there is no reference to wilderness in the Wirth bill 

 and that, in fact, we do not even have the strong protections that 

 you all are recommending under LUD 2. It looks like LUD 2 is 

 pretty good stuff. Now, let me read what the Forest Service said 

 about LUD 2: 



These lands are to be managed in a roadless state to retain their wild land char- 

 acter. This would permit wildlife and fish habitat improvement and primitive recre- 

 ational facility development. This designation will exclude, one, roads except for spe- 

 cifically authorized uses and, two, timber harvesting, except for controlling insect 

 infestation or to protect other resource value and, three, major concentrated-recre- 

 ational facilities. 



The conference had suggested permanent LUD 2 protection for 

 the twelve areas that they suggested. The twenty-three areas in my 

 bill would be temporarily protected until the Forest Service plan is 

 revised, and obviously we are honing in here on some kind of an 

 agreement. It looks to me like a lot of this may end up in LUD 2 

 areas, which, I gather, you all suggested. 



If I might, on the subject of the 4.5 billion I suggest that we read 

 the law. Section 705(a) says, "The Congress authorizes and directs 

 the Secretary of the Treasury shall make available to the Secretary 

 of Agriculture the sum of at least $40 million annually or as much 

 as the Secretary of Agriculture finds is necessary to maintain the 

 timber supply from the Tongass National Forest to dependent in- 

 dustry at a rate of four billion five hundred million foot board 

 measure per decade." That is a pretty inflexible requirement, 4.5 

 billion feet per decade. Again, for the purpose of the record here, 

 the Forest Service said in its 1987 report, talking about the Land 

 Management Plan, says, "the Tongass Land Management Plan an- 

 ticipated an average annual timber sale volume of roughly four 

 hundred and fifty million board feet, a sale level consistent with 

 the upper limit of the allowable sale quantity for the Tongass." 

 Then it goes on to say, "Since 1980 the volume of timber made 

 available from the Tongass to the timber industry has averaged ap- 

 proximately four hundred and sixty million board feet per year. Of 

 this approximately four hundred and ten million board feet was 

 sold." So, they are anticipating and using the four-fifty as the base 

 on which their whole forest plan is developed and that is one of the 

 issues in front of us. If you have this four hundred and fifty million 

 board feet per year requirement, 4.5 billion over 10 years, that 

 drives the whole rest of the process. That is why this is a particu- 

 larly crucial area, and I am pleased that you are focused on it. 



Mr. Williams, may I ask you a question about your testimony? 

 On page 1, you talk about old growth forest and the importance of 

 that to salmon spawning. "Old growth forest habitat provides the 

 crucial combination of these elements that will sustain healthy 

 levels of salmon production and survival." Then you go on to say 

 that, "Second growth forest does not provide this crucial balance. 

 Research shows that in one stage or another of the second growth 

 process productivity might actually be increased, but the short- 

 term net gain, it is assumed, is more than offset by the negative im- 

 pacts of succeeding stages." 



