509 



We would like to thank you for holding these hearings on man- 

 agement of the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. 



It is the position of the Territorial Sportsmen that Section 705(a) 

 of ANILCA, which requires the Forest Service to make available to 

 the timber industry a supply of 4.5 billion board feet per decade 

 and the creation of a special fund of at least $40 million, is not in 

 the best interests of all resources and resource users and should be 

 altered to allow more diversified priority consideration to all uses 

 and users. 



We want to clearly emphasize that the Territorial Sportsmen are 

 not opposed to logging and that we support sound development 

 which enhances the economy of Alaska. 



In 1985 the Territorial Sportsmen produced a comprehensive 

 report on the effects of logging on wildlife, fisheries, and economics 

 in Southeast Alaska. We would like to make a copy available for 

 the record. 



Sitka black-tailed deer are the most abundant and widely distrib- 

 uted recreational and subsistence hunting species in Southeast 

 Alaska. The main factor limiting populations is availability of food 

 in winter. Logging, with its removal of canopy cover provided by 

 old growth trees, allows much more snow to accumulate on the 

 ground and makes food unavailable. About 30 years after logging, 

 densely growing second growth shades out deer forage understory 

 plants. 



The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest 

 Service have intensively studied effects of logging on deer. Predic- 

 tive models using new information developed since the Alaska Na- 

 tional Interest Lands Conservation ACT, ANILCA, indicate that, 

 under present cutting plans, deer numbers in many popular hunt- 

 ing areas will be reduced 60 to 80 percent by the end of the first 

 100-year rotation period. Forest-wide, after the first rotation period, 

 the deer number will be reduced by more than 40 percent. It is pos- 

 sible to modify cutting plans and carefully select areas to be logged 

 so that impacts to deer would be less severe. 



The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has consistently been 

 on record for more protection of fish and wildlife habitat than is 

 provided at the present by the Tongass Land Management Plan, 

 which provides the same timber harvest base as ANILCA. During 

 the TLMP review period, the Department stated that economics of 

 timber harvest as it affects guiding, trapping and viewing of wild- 

 life should be analyzed, along with economics related to timber in- 

 dustry jobs. To obtain a balanced resource allocation, the ADF&G 

 recommended that one or another alternatives be adopted for 

 TLMP. Both alternatives were rejected for the final TLMP, and a 

 more intensive timber harvest plan was adopted. 



The Alaska Department of Fish and Game requested deferral of 

 logging in 70 management areas with exceptionally high fish and 

 wildlife values until TLMP is revised in 1989. The 70 management 

 areas are out of a total of about 820 on the Tongass Forest. This 

 request was not honored, even in a time of depressed timber mar- 

 kets and reduced harvests. This illustrates the severe conflict be- 

 tween existing cutting levels and habitat concerns of Alaska De- 

 partment of Fish and Game. 



