Sponsor Statement for SJR 24

The purpose of SJR 24 is two-fold. First, it encourages the U.S. Forest Service to bring the decade-long development of the Tongass Land Use Management Plan (TLUMP) to a conclusion so the people and communities of Southeast Alaska can move forward with their economic and personal lives with some degree of certainty. The resolution supports a level of timber harvest from the Tongass National Forest sufficient to sustain a forest product industry and prevent further job loss and economic disruption in Southeast Alaska.

Secondly, the resolution endorses continued oversight by Congress and the Alaska Congressional delegation of Forest Service management activities relating to the Tongass. This endorsement urges review of the analyses and procedures employed by the Forest Service to ensure that decisions affecting the social and economic well-being of Southeast communities are appropriate and scientifically credible.

After a decade of false starts, intervening federal legislation, court decisions and several public review drafts, the Forest Service appears poised to adopt a final version of the land use management plan for the Tongass. During this time period the Southeast economy has lost $60 million in forest products payroll and half of its timber jobs. The continuing decline in available timber supply has closed two pulp mills and one sawmill. Without a plan that ensures some level of harvesting, the existence of any forest product industry in Southeast Alaska is threatened.

On December 20, 1996 the Southeast Regional Timber Task Force passed a resolution urging the Federal government to finalize a plan for timber harvest in the Tongass. The Task Force determined that a minimum annual harvest level of 300 million board feet (MMBF) was necessary to reestablish a viable, integrated timber industry. This volume has been selected by several Forest Supervisors of the Tongass as the preferred alternative in previous drafts of TLUMP.

Any delay in the finalization of the Tongass Land Use Management Plan is detrimental to the social and economic stability of Southeast Alaska. A plan that adopts a minimum 300 MMBF timber supply will stem the current decline and the associated economic depression of Southeast communities dependent on the forest product industry. SJR 24 requests the completion of the long delayed plan and that it include a 300 MMBF timber harvest level.