577 



While the first six witnesses are coming to the witness table I 

 would like to make a couple of announcements. The individuals, as 

 I pointed out, should take the appropriate seats. Please bring 

 copies of your written statements with you when you come up. 

 When you get to the first row the staff will collect your statements 

 and make sure that they are available to the members of the com- 

 mittee. 



We had set the deadline of two minutes per witness. Unfortu- 

 nately, our court reporter has got a 5:30 airplane and we are going 

 to have to leave here at 5:00 o'clock. We will close the hearing at 

 5:00 o'clock. So, we are going to accelerate the rate just little more 

 rapidly and we ask all of you to speak real fast and do it in a 

 minute and thirty seconds. That way we can, I hope, get everybody 

 in who has been promised the opportunity to testify. Unfortunate- 

 ly, and I understand there has been some communication between 

 here and Washington, some people may have been inadvertently 

 omitted from the witness list. If you are on the witness list pub- 

 lished in the newspaper and do not see your name on today's wit- 

 ness list, please check with a member of the staff by coming over 

 here and raising your hand and we will see if we can get that 

 sorted out. We have already added Leo Gillings and Jim Stout, who 

 were inadvertently omitted, for this same reason. 



So, let us move on very smartly, if we can. The staff will be keep- 

 ing a watch and we are going to go a minute and thirty seconds or 

 the best we can do. 



Let us go to Ladonna Stafford first. 



We saved a minute and thirty seconds because evidently she is 

 not here. Let us go to John Parton. 



STATEMENT OF JOHN PARTON 



Mr. Parton. My name is John Parton. I am an Alaska logger 

 and I live in Rowan Bay. I work for the Alaska Pulp Corporation 

 running a yarder. 



In starting I might say that I do not see this just as something 

 happening here. I see this as the trend of things all over the coun- 

 try to stop the logging of the old growth in the forest by a one-sided 

 view. 



I wish I had spots on my skin so that it would be physically ap- 

 parent that I too am an endangered species. Even as the small 

 creature is one of many types of owl, I am a specific type of 

 human, a Pacific Northwest logger. Will you give my mate and I 

 thousands of acres of timberland, for that is what I too need to sur- 

 vive. 



Am I a destroyer of everything in my path or just a harvester of 

 the old and past prime, that the young and healthy might develop? 

 Do I perform an unnecessary task or am I not at the very center of 

 our existence just as the other farmers you subsidize? On the day 

 your children were born their very first contact other than the doc- 

 tor's hand was with the paper towels that wiped them clean. The 

 books that educate us, the money we spend, the laws you write, 

 even the pamphlets, magazines, and picket signs that protest me 

 are all made out of the products I provide, as is probably the home 

 that you live in. 



