516 



Senator Wirth. Very quickly. Mr. Ward, in your testimony you 

 said that the harvest of timber from public lands within the Ton- 

 gass is the most highly regulated timber industry in the world. 

 Where did that data come from? 



Mr. Ward. Well, I would have to admit that is pure speculation 

 on my part. 



Senator Wirth. That is not true. I just want to point that out. 

 Any forest that is near an urban area has more intensive forest 

 management. 



Mr. Cronk suggests that our large private and state timberland 

 holdings in the Lower 48 allows a diversity of timber supply and 

 less pressure on public lands, which is another one of the reasons 

 why it was suggested the Tongass ought to be treated differently. 

 That is one of the questions we have been after all of the time, why 

 should the Tongass be treated differently? The suggestion here is 

 that it is because there are other timber sources available in the 

 Lower 48, is that right? 



Mr. Cronk. That is what I am saying, yes. The Federal Govern- 

 ment and privately owned log the timber supply. 



Senator Wirth. And in every other national forest there is avail- 

 able, therefore, a diversity of timber supply from large private and 

 state timberland holdings? 



Mr. Cronk. Correct. In other states, as well as national forests, 

 they are not the only source of timber there. 



Senator Wirth. Are there also national forests that do not have 

 available private and state timberland holdings? 



Mr. Cronk. Not within the national forest, but within the states 

 they exist. I believe that there are the private and state holdings. 



Senator Wirth. Well, I think there are a number of examples of 

 other national forests where those who timber on the national for- 

 ests do not have access to any other timber. 



Mr. Cronk. There may be operators that focus their operations 

 specifically on Federal timber, be it Forest Service, National 

 Forest, or be it Land Management. They have the same opportuni- 

 ty to bid on state sales, if those are available in those areas. Many 

 of the private holdings are large timber companies that do cut for 

 their own use, but that means that they do not have to rely on the 

 Federal lands so heavily. 



Senator Wirth. Seldom do you find a competitive situation in the 

 Rocky Mountain Region or the Pacific Northwest where there are 

 competitive situations and you do have smaller mills there. Very 

 seldom do those mills have access to anything but national forest 

 land. The point of that is that were there to be a more competitive 

 situation here, rather than two large companies having all of the 

 contracts who have effectively, as I understand it, driven everybody 

 else out, is that you would treat this in a more competitive way, 

 and there would not be any need for these kinds of long-term con- 

 tracts and commitments we have here today. The other forests 

 have gotten rid of those. The rationale was that there was not any 

 other market and, well, we have proved that there are other mar- 

 kets. 



So, I am just asking again why should the Tongass be treated dif- 

 ferently and you are making one allegation as to why it should be. 



