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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 1997 ENVIRONMENTALISTS AT WAR WITH SOUTHEAST
Alaska Forest Association executive director, Jack Phelps, today accused SEACC and the Sierra Club of being at war with the economy of Southeast Alaska. "Yesterday, AFA filed its comments on the proposed Lab Bay timber sales which both SEACC and the Sierra Club have appealed," Phelps said. "The Forest Service bent over backwards to satisfy all the concerns raised by environmentalists during the EIS planning process. A significant number of units were removed from consideration, several were dramatically altered, and the total volume was reduced by 53 percent." "Apparently, this still wasn’t enough for SEACC ," Phelps said. "Instead, they have chosen to declare war on Southeast Alaska’s economy by asking the Forest Service to spend millions more of the taxpayers dollars to write a new Environmental Impact Statement on the ground that the pulp mill has closed." The Lab Bay EIS was originally intended to help satisfy the timber supply needs of the pulp mill at Ward Cove as well as to make timber available for the independent sales program. "Other mills in the area have been running short of wood, and having the Lab Bay timber available for the independents would provide some relief," Phelps said. "That is true even though the final decision cut the volume in half." Phelps expressed outrage that SEACC would appeal Lab Bay, given the accomodations made by the Forest Service in the FEIS , and in light of the serious blows the timber industry has suffered lately. "These appeals are the moral equivalent of kicking an opponent while he is down," Phelps said. "They were filed in the spirit of a feeding frenzy, not with any reflection of SEACC ’s often repeated support for the independent timber operators who remain on the Tongass after the loss of both the pulp mills, a loss for which they have taken credit."
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