528 

 Senator Wirth. Thank you very much, Ms. Brown. 



STATEMENT OF LARRY BECK, GENERAL MANAGER, CHILKOOT 



LUMBER CO. 



Mr. Beck. Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee. 



I am Larry Beck, the General Manager of Chilkoot Lumber Co. 

 in Haines. 



Having spent my entire professional life, 24 years, in all facets of 

 timber harvest and lumber production, I feel entitled to speak on 

 the subject. 



I am totally opposed to any verbiage which would allow anyone 

 to think that the 4.5 billion board feet allowable to be cut per 

 decade meant anything but that: allowable cut. 



The industry has the capacity to utilize much more than its 

 much publicized "450 mmbf per year," but because of market de- 

 mands, the actual cut may not reach the 4.5 billion board feet of 

 potential harvest base. The industry needs the assurance that the 

 timber will be available so that we can plan for the future. The 

 Tongass will sustain much more than the 4.5 billion feet of allow- 

 able cut per decade. 



All compromise agreements with groups opposed to timber har- 

 vest seem to be a one-way street, with the environmental groups 

 forgetting what they agreed to just a couple of years before. The 

 industry should not need to continue to lobby Congress for its 

 agreed-upon share of the forest. Congress should stand fast and 

 deny those that, with their proposed trades of land, loggable for 

 wilderness, would effectively stop many of the planned transporta- 

 tion corridors. These transportation systems are constructed to 

 allow all of the users of the forest access to their forest, not just 

 the logging industry. The setting of the boundaries should not be a 

 subject that the legislative branch gets involved with, but a matter 

 that is decided by a committee of all the groups involved in the 

 multiple use of the forest. 



If all of the Nation's national forests are to be attacked as the 

 Tongass is, what is going to be the cost to the American consumers, 

 driven by their insatiable demand for forest products in the form of 

 lumber, paper, dissolving pulp products, and absorbent pulp for dis- 

 posable diapers and the like. The constant erosion of the basic in- 

 dustries that supply the raw materials to the American production 

 chain is causing these American jobs to be exported. Our own mill, 

 in the small business sector, is producing mostly finished products, 

 ready to go on the consumer's shelves, keeping these jobs and pay- 

 rolls here in America. Utilizing the Tongass is one of its best roles, 

 supporting the people of the Tongass. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you, Mr. Beck. 



STATEMENT OF DENNIS JACOBS, CHILKOOT LUMBER CO. 



Mr. Jacobs. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. My name is 

 Dennis Jacobs, and I am employed in the forest industry in the 

 Tongass National Forest. I have been involved and employed, di- 

 rectly and indirectly, in the forest industry my entire life. 



I wish to address you members of the Congressional Committee, 

 and other concerned citizens in the audience, on my concerns re- 



