533 



Mr. RoppEL. Well, as far as I know, the two pulp mills in Alaska 

 are the only pulp mills that have to rely 100 percent on national 

 forest timber for their makeup, and certainly on the West Coast. 

 Our competitors in Washington, as an example, in the Olympic Pe- 

 ninsula, have about 30 percent of their makeup from state timber 

 sales, from Federal timber sales, and from private. And many of 

 those companies own their own private timber lands to make up 

 their requirements. I think the Tongass is about the only forest 

 that I know that has a 40 percent pulp component. 



Senator Murkowski. What does that mean? 



Mr. RoppEL. The wood has no other economic use except pulp 

 chips. The trees are old, decayed, half rotten. The requirements are 

 that we take the log that has a very high percentage of rot in it. A 

 private land owner probably could not do that because it does not 

 have the economics. The Forest Service requires that is a part of 

 its total utilization program. 



So, the Tongass has a very high component of decaying wood 

 suitable only for pulp. It is unique in that there are, or shortly will 

 be, very limited other supplies, private land owner supplies as well. 

 We have been fortunate in the last 10 years — it is a very down 

 market — the native pulp wood came into the market and supple- 

 mented the national forest market. So, we see the Tongass as being 

 unique in those respects. 



Senator Murkowski. Is it safe to say that if the pulp mills shut 

 down, those that had Forest Service timber contracts would still be 

 required to take this 40 percent wood, out of the forest, that would 

 not go into timber. And I assume that the alternative would be to 

 simply chip product and export it out, which is really the exploita- 

 tion of jobs 



Mr. RoppEL. I do not believe the Forest Service would be allowed 

 by the national policies to leave salable wood or usable wood in for- 

 ests. I think they would be required to take out that low-grade com- 

 ponent, and you would have to burn it or chip it. If you chipped it, 

 you could probably set up some sort of a contract going to the 

 export market. Two mills in Alaska now have that capability. 



Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Senator Wirth. Mr. Burns? 



Senator Burns. Mr. Roppel, you stated a little while ago that 

 some of the timber was tied up in lawsuits. Can you give us the 

 nature of those lawsuits, whether they are on appeal, or what is 

 the nature of those? 



Mr. Roppel. They are in both forms. Senator. We have — the 

 Forest Service sets out timber the Environmental Impact State- 

 ment process. Their EIS was challenged, and I think Mr. Hanlon 

 mentioned that earlier, that they successfully sued the Forest Serv- 

 ice, and they did. The Forest Service was found to be inadequate 

 and, therefore, holds were put on that timber until it was adequate 

 and another Environmental Impact Statement could be prepared 

 and released. And that is tied up. I am pretty sure that is the 

 timber that we were anticipating operating on this past year. 



Senator Burns. Let us kind of turn the other way. Do you have 

 any inventory report, or what kind of supply do you have or do we 

 have on logs that would be determined to go into conventional 

 lumber and pulp supply on native lands? Do you know? Do you 



