558 

 Senator Wirth. Thank you, Mr. Schmidt. 



STATEMENT OF ALICE JOHNSTONE 



Ms. Johnstone. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and committee 

 members. 



My name is Alice Johnstone. I am a retired businesswoman and 

 an elected member of the Sitka City and Borough Assembly. I have 

 lived here in Sitka for 47 years. My husband and I raised our 

 family here and intend to spend the rest of our lives here. Sitka is 

 our home. 



Senator Wirth, I heartily support your bill, the Tongass Reform 

 Act, S.346. Management reform is long overdue in the Tongass. I 

 would, however, ask you to make one significant change in your 

 bill. Please amend it to provide wilderness protection for the 23 

 areas identified by the Forest Service, the Alaska Department of 

 Fish and Game, rural communities, commercial fishing groups, 

 conservation organizations and Sealaska Native Corporation as 

 having high values for fish, wildlife, recreation, tourism and sub- 

 sistence use. 



Senators, if this bill is passed by Congress, Alaska Pulp Company 

 claims that they will no longer be able to afford to continue to 

 produce pulp. 



They tell their employees that they will lose their jobs. In short, 

 they threaten to close their doors and go away. With a knee jerk 

 reaction, the Sitka Chamber of Commerce takes up the cry. They 

 devote their weekly programs to testimonies by local persons ex- 

 pounding on the impact mill closure would have on the community. 

 Ads supporting APC appear in the paper, on TV and radio. Peti- 

 tions are circulated. Soon the whole city is in an emotional turmoil. 



Gentlemen, for more than 30 years this company has been 

 "crying wolf every time they have been requested to comply with 

 a regulation or law that is unpopular with them. However, they 

 are still operating. In 1988 the company produced more pulp than 

 they have since 1981. I understand this was also one of those rare 

 years when they admittedly produced a profit. 



Alaska has, for all of the years since it was discovered by the 

 Russians, been abused by industry. The major theme has been "get 

 in, get all you can, and get out." History is repeating itself in the 

 Tongass Forest. According to figures that I got from the Forest 

 Service yesterday, APC pays $2.26 per 1,000 board feet of Sitka 

 Spruce sawlogs. That works out to only $45 for the same magnifi- 

 cent eight foot diameter tree that costs Ketchikan Pulp Company 

 $5,000. The timber industry is high grading the forest for greater 

 profits. Half of the high quality timber is already gone and the 

 other half is scheduled to be cut in the remaining years of the 

 timber contracts. 



I request you approve the Tongass Timber Reform Act, S. 346, 

 amended to provide wilderness protection of the 23 crucial habitat 

 areas. 



Thank you for your attention to my comments. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you, Ms. Johnstone. 



