tempted to obtain information on the amount of tim proposed wilderness area. e were given an estimate of 8,420 million board fee ne of our members, who knows the area, who also kn tioned the figures. And were next given a total of 5 d this is a difference of almost 3 billion board feet. the discrepancies of this nature can have a very ser er resources when the Forest Service attempts to sup of timber that is sold. e waste of timber that is occurring in Alaska can onl shocking. It occurs at every stage of handling. And at is cut should be completely utilized. cut and left to rot on the ground. And this happens eve this is what they consider normal logging operations. on to this, there are also areas where the timber was mpt at all was made to get it out. And I have noted lost in storage, they are lost during towing, and they nillpond. They are stored so long in some areas that s break and the rafts come apart. rways are full of drifting logs, and it is no longer safe bat at night. Beaches at times may be piled so high w e scarcely passable. Logs are left in storage for long pe y may be damaged by accident and unfit for either lumb le pulp. s I have submitted for the record show this type of was d also if possible like to submit later some pictures tha each hike less than 2 weeks ago which show the beach pil h logs we could hardly get along. Part of this waste is d that a lumber rather than a pulp scale is used, and t ger claims it is not economical to bring out of the woo high percentage of defects. This is discussed in the repor ass Conservation Society. problem is that logs are not scaled until they reach the mil apparently cheaper for the pulp companies to get more lo round up those that are left lost. I would like to make one statement, however, during these hearings as to the need of the Ame ber for housing. We also have to recognize that adequate supply of protein food. And in that re of major importance. As to the water resources, the Multiple Us designates the high country zone of the prod water, but it is ignoring what happens to this w eroded clearcut hillside to reach the streams At the time of the first hearings on water quali ikan April 10, 1967, the Forest Service testified pulp and timber industries, and asked for more standards. And now we heard yesterday in a news release port "Industrial Waste Guide on Logging P Water Pollution Control Administration mad ment: "Logging is one of the most serious sources the Pacific Northwest." They note pollution by changes and organic leaching products. Even the very inadequate Forest Service st Clearcutting on Salmon Habitat of two South from the Institute of Northern Forestry, 1969, in sediment and the temperature changes. Pollution of the water resource is also occurr areas and at sawmills and pulp mills in southe pollution has been well documented by the Fed Control Administration. In spite of this, the for Howard Johnson stood before the Sierra Club's ferences in San Francisco and stated that ther Alaska's waters from pulp mills. RECREATION In spite of increasing recreational use of the east Alaska both by residents and visitors, th 60-209-71-pt. 2- 5 600 failed to implement the water influence zone in any meaningful way. Failure to restrict logging along the world-famous inside passage is rapidly destroying the scenic value of what was truly a national treasure. Pobably the worst examples of clear-cutting along a narrow, scenic waterway are found in Peril Strait, part of the inside passage that is on the route of the Alaska Ferry System as well as of heavy recreational boat travel. There was not even an attempt at any form of landscape management. In the Wrangell area, the ferry route was actually changed to avoid a very ugly clearcut right alongside the previous route. For years we all assumed that the Forest Service had zoned the inside passage as a steamer lane. Even Dr. Richard A. Cooley, in his book, "Alaska, a Challenge in Conservation," 1966, was taken in by this policy. He states, page 92: The Forest Service has also established special "steamer lane zones" in which timber harvesting and other extensive land uses are strictly controlled so that travelers on the beautiful waterways and narrow fords of southeastern Alaska may pass through an unmarred landscape. It was not until the Forest Service made the Juneau unit timber sale to Saint Regis in 1965 that we learned that the "steamer lane zone” was a myth. Lack of concern for recreational values is also shown by failure to designate bays, coves, bights, et cetera, as anchorages. As one local troller said: "Our boys have either been logged, having a logging camp in them or they are being used for log storage. Where water influence zones have been designated along lakes and streams that receive heavy recreational use, they are so narrow as to be meaningless. The Forest Service either does not know, or does not care what the true recreational values are in Alaska. The water influence zone left at Luck Lake, a heavily used recreational area, is a case in point. In Alaska, as elsewhere, the Forest Service has no concept of what recreationists want or need. Tails here are either boardwalks, expensive, and totally out of keeping with the natural forest setting, or else they are almost non-existent. The Forest Service refuses to recognize that many resource uses are incompatible. At a recent meeting with the supervisor of the South Tongass National Forest, two of us were told that logging was creating recreational interest. At a recent timber sale, the Ketchikan Ranger District announced a small "lump sum sale" of 66 acres along a road in the Hyder area. The ranger said that the area was a "travel influence zone." I raised the question as to whether a leave strip was planned and if so how wide it would be, or if landscope management plans were to be implemented. I was told that the area involved was too small for this but that a "better clean-upalong the road would be required." It is in the attempts of conservation groups in southeast Alaska to propose wilderness study areas that the greatest conflicts have occurred. We consider it significant that not a single wilderness area has been established in the National Forest of Alaska. This is in an area of roughly 20 million acres, about 16 million of it in southeast Alaska. There is not even a single primitive area. 601 I have quoted at some length from three short Forest Service publications in Wilderness in America. And they speak for themselves on the bias that exists for not designating wilderness areas immediately. The management of the Tongass National Forest is directed toward the immediate measurable economic returns to the community, which they have made. We feel there is an urgent need for an immediate, impartial study of management practices on the Tongass National Forest. We need a study similar to that of the Select Committee of the University of Montana on the Bitteroot National Forest of Montana. Finally, Congress needs to take action to assure that our National Forest are managed for the benefit of all our resources and not just for the short-term economic benefit of the timber industry. Thank you. Senator CHURCH. Thank you, Mrs. Baade. Your prepared statement will be included in the record at this point. (The statements of Mrs. Baade and A. W. Boddy, a member of one of the organizations in the Alaska Panhandle, follow :) STATEMENT OF MRS. DIXIE M. BAADE, REPRESENTING THE SOUTHEAST ALASKAN CONSERVATION COUNCIL Mr. Chairman, my name is Dixie Baade. I am here today representing the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. This was formed to coordinate the conservation efforts of six organizations in the Alaska Panhandle. These are: Juneau group, Sierra Club Sitka group, Sierra Club Petersburg Conservation Society Tongass Conservation Society Southeast Alaska Mountaineering Association We do not feel that Multiple Use exists on the Tongass National Forest. The situation appears almost identical with that of the Bitterroot National Forest as described in the document "University View of the Forest Service" prepared for the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. We are particularly concerned with long range effects of the large scale clear-cutting that is taking place. Management appears to be for timber production only and protective provisions for other resources have to date existed only on paper for the most part. The bias for management of the Tongass National Forest for the production of timber is evident throughout the entire text of the Multiple Use Management Guide for the Alaska Region of April 1964. This paragraph is especially pertinent: "About 95% of the commercial forest land of southeastern Alaska is occupied by overmature stands of hemlock, spruce and cedar. Silviculturally, these decadent stands should be removed by clear-cutting methods as soon as possible to make way for new stands of fast growing second growth timber." We question that this clear-cutting does in fact constitute silviculture. The fallacy of harvesting timber to "get it into production" is pointed out by the University study referred to above. To quote: "Clearcutting a forest to get it into production is similar to the military rationale of destroying a town to save it." "We must stop confusing cutting with management." In Alaska as elsewhere, the old growth timber is being logged as fast as possible. Other values of this "overmature" forest are not given sufficient recognition. The following resources are recognized as being of importance on the Tongass National Forest: soils, timber, water, wildlife including fisheries, outdoor recreation and minerals. Below I have outlined the damage that is being done to these resources through present Forest Service management policies. 5 (Dilues 3, 4, J & U DEL #1) des logged around 1956-1958. Scattered young trees appear 3-4 feet in height. Gullying and slides mar the entire hillsi ailure of this area to recover, logging continued on similar Behm Canal shore and is still going on. Slide #7, Set #1) ep slope on which logging was completed in 1969. As of July 5, sion and slides similar to those of Gedney Pass. The erosi rainages and there are at least 4 slides. This was considered ber in 1965 and it is rumored that the logger "lost his shirt' a scenic waterway in the process. to the Multiple Use Management Guide, 213.1 "natural regener 3-5 years in nearly all cases. Within 15 years after logging, the logged area." areas to regenerate according to Forest Service estimates can tions as to the volume of timber available at the end of 100 ods. In areas where slides have occurred, it may be a matte before the exposed rock breaks down to form soil. 'orest Service and the timber industry place a great deal of 1 sifter" as a means of preventing siltation of streams following s ignored is that silt in the stream represents loss of soil from the basic forest resource. TIMBER umors that estimates of timber volumes in certain sale areas he Tongass Conservation Society in Ketchikan had difficulty get imate of timber volume in an area being studied for wilderness . At first we were given the following in terms of board feet: 3, 100, 000, 5, 320, 000, 8, 420, 000, Imembers who knew the area questioned these figures and we w e following: 2, 100, 000, 3, 400, 000, 5,500,000, fference of 2,920,000,000 or almost 3 billion board feet! Discrepanc ce can have a very serious effect on other resources as the For apts to supply the volume of timber it has sold. the timber resource occurs at every stage of handling. What is mpletely utilized. |