27428 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS September 30, 1986 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS TONGASS TIMBER REFORM ACT Though at the outset demand was reason­ cent of this country's timber. The Forest OF 1986 ably strong, the government still lost money Service, a 38,000-employee bureaucracy, has in this job-creating venture. An average staffed up with surveyors, road engineers mile of road built to reach the trees costs and others who move up the ranks by put­ HON.ROBERTJ.MRAZEK $150,000. To make the undertaking profita­ ting lots of board feet on the scoreboard. OF NEW YORK ble for the companies, the government had Convincing them that it makes no economic IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES to provide a large subsidy. sense is nearly impossible. In 1980 the Alaska National Interest This is a problem not only in Alaska. Two Monday, September 29, 1986 Lands Conservation Act <ANILCA> sought years ago, studies by the General Account­ Mr. MRAZEK. Mr. Speaker, you may recall to preserve 5.4 million acres of the Tongass ing Office, the Congressional Research as permanent wilderness. Alaska timber in­ Service and the Wilderness Society revealed that I have written to my colleagues in the terests, led by Sen. Ted Stevens <R., Alaska), that timber programs in many national for­ House about the unprofitable timber industry manuevered to change the legislation. The ests are costing taxpayers more than what in the T ongass National Forest in southeast result was Section 705 of ANILCA, which timber companies are paying for the wood. Alaska. To rectify this situation, I have intro­ set a goal of selling 4.5 billion board feet The losses in the last fiscal year alone duced the Tongass Timber Reform Act of from the Tongass per decade, roughly one amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. 1986 (H.R. 5291), which I believe will remedy percent of the nation's total output. To The Forest Service conceded that 37 percent the unfortunate situation in our Nation's larg­ cover the costs of building roads, surveying of its timber is being sold below cost. est national forest. and overhead, the section provides a mini­ But the Tongass is the only forest with a mum $40-milion pennanent annual appro­ money-losing timber program written into The following is an article that appears in priation, "or as much as the Secretary of law. Fortunately Section 705 calls for a the October issue of Reader's Digest entitled Agriculture finds is necessary," to meet the review of the program after five years. The "Time To Ax This Timber Boondoggle." This goal. House Interior and Insular Affairs Commit­ article succinctly explains many problems the Meanwhile, modern technology had found tee has now completed oversight hearings. timber industry is having in the Tongass and synthetic substitutes to be cheaper than This review of the Tongass timber program the enormous yearly cost to the taxpayer. In pulp for making sandwich wrappers and gives us a chance to save money, save addition, I have included an editorial that ap­ rayon shirts. Countries such as South nature, and save face-if Congress has the peared in the New York Times and an article Africa, where trees grow more quickly and fortitude to stop this boondoggle. are cheaper to harvest, underbid Alaska for from the Anchorage Times. the remaining demand. [From the New York Times, May 17, 1986] I hope these articles will convince you to Timber jobs in southeast Alaska began to join me in rectifying the problems in the Ton­ dry up. Since passage of ANILCA six years THE LAST GREAT RAIN FOREST gass. ago, they have declined by 40 percent, to The Tongass National Forest, the last [From the Reader's Digest, October 1986] fewer than 1800. In 1984 the demand for great rain forest in the United States, is board feet was slightly over half of the 450 being destroyed, pointlessly, by the Govern­ TIME To Ax THIS TIMBER BOONDOGGLE million feet per year contemplated by Sec­ ment that professes to care about preserv­ <By Bennett H. Beach) tion 705. Undeterred, the Forest Service ing the nation's environment. Why? Some 4000 miles from Washington, D.C., squandered $11 million on roads and other The forest, which covers most of the deep in an ancient Alaskan rain forest, the preparatory steps for timber sales that no southern panhandle of Alaska, is bigger federal government is running a business company would bid on. For each job still than the state of West Virginia. The value that loses 98 cents on every taxpayer dollar maintained by the Tongass program, U.S. of this land of centuries-old spruce is aes­ it spends. Losses are more than $50 million taxpayers are kicking in $36,000 a year. The thetic and ecological rather than economic. a year. Meanwhile this logging operation, two prime beneficiaries of this largess are Access is hampered by harsh weather, diffi­ under U.S. Forest Service supervision, is de­ the Ketchikan Pulp Co. and the Japanese­ cult terrain and distance to market. stroying the only largely intact rain forest owned Alaska Pulp Corp. During the development mania of the left in the world's temperate zones. The gov­ Even in southeast Alaska, the Forest Serv­ 1960's, however, two timber companies were ernment's purpose is to create a timber in­ ice's enthusiasm for timber cutting is not induced to build pulp mills in the area by dustry in southeast Alaska, and that is fail­ universally appreciated. Commercial fisher­ guaranteeing them the right to log the ing as well. men told Congress that the logging and forest at a profit for 50 years. Then, in 1980, This particular boondoggle started inno­ road-building cause erosion damaging to when Congress was debating the status of cently enough. Southeast Alaska is a 500- world-famous salmon-spawning beds. Log­ Alaska's public lands, Senator Ted Stevens mile panhandle running along the Pacific transfer facilities along the shore have fought successfully to lock in their deal. Ocean. Eighty percent of it lies in the Ton­ forced out some fishing fleets. The area's A provision of the new land law set a goal gass National Forest, at 16.8 million acres fishing industry provides more jobs than of harvesting 4.5 billion board feet of timber the largest of our 155 national forests. Ever the timber industry does-without federal each decade, roughly 1 percent of all U.S. since the early 1900s, the Federal Govern­ subsidy. The logging also threatens tourism, production. The Forest Service was author­ ment has seen timbering as an ideal way to the region's fastest-growing industry, now ized to spend whatever was necessary to attract warm bodies to this cold, wet, isolat­ creating more jobs all the time. meet the goal. Since then, world prices for ed piece of America. Then there is the matter of a magnificent timber have fallen sharply and are likely to Early efforts were a bust. Finally, in the natural wonder being dest:(oyed. The Ton­ remain low for decades. That has made Ton­ 1950s, the Forest Service persuaded two gass features thousands of lakes, islands and gass lumber almost worthless, even with the large pulp companies to set up shop there. str~ams. There are alpine meadows and heavy subsidies. Among the inducements were 50-year con­ fjords against a backdrop of snowcapped Yet the pulp companies, which have made tracts and bargain-basement timber prices, mountains. Sitka spruce that were seedlings substantial investments in the region, see no so that they could compete against mills in when King John signed the Magna Charta reason to let Uncle Sam off the hook. And Washington State. soar 250 feet. And this rare rain forest con­ in spite of the inevitable environmental The market for the forest's output was tain's the world's largest concentrations of damage, the Forest Service seems happy to Japan, with small percentages going to bald eagles and grizzly bears. oblige. other Pacific-rim countries. The pulp-grade The Forest Service stubbornly insists on Between 1982 and 1985 Washington spent timber, about 60 percent of the average believing that the timber program is good $253 million to build roads through ancient Tongass clear-cutting, ultimately was for the local economy. That has been its forests populated by the continent's heavi­ turned into rayon and cellophane. The rest premise for 75 years, and such long-held est concentration of bald eagles and grizzly was shipped as logs to be milled overseas views are hard to change. Since the advent bears. One-third of the timber land opened and used for housing construction and spe­ of the post-World War II housing boom, na­ drew no bids at all. The rest sold for pea­ cial items such as pianos. tional forests have supplied about 20 per- nuts-less than $10 million in total. e This "bullet'' symbol identifies statements or insertions -which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. September 30, 1986 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 27429 The pulp companies and Alaska's Congres­ DR. WILLIAM L. ROPER HON­ road Co. [TCI] Health Department in Fairfield, sional delegation justify continuing Federal ORED AS HEALTH PIONEER AL, and with the support of U.S. Steel Corpo­ outlays as a means of saving some 1,500 log­ ration, which owned TCI, Noland organized a ging jobs in the region. It would be cheaper · progressive public health system and founded just to pay each logger $36,000 a year-and HON.