NEW TLMP FACTS:
- The Record of Decision (ROD) withdraws 100,000 acres from the suitable timber base.
That’s a 15% reduction from the 1997 TLMP decision. A 15% change is significant and
warrants a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) accompanied by a full public process.
The process Undersecretary Jim Lyons used to come up with a new TLMP was clearly
inappropriate and illegal.
- Lyon’s record of decision ‘calculates’ the allowable sale quantity (ASQ)
to be 187 mmbf. The decision does not disclose how Lyons arrived at this number. The FS
Alaska Region also says it does not know how the number was calculated.
- The effective ASQ based on FS economic analysis is 153 mmbf, not 187 mmbf.
- Whatever the new ASQ is it is far below the 355 mmbf current normal operating capacity
of the manufacturing facilities in Southeast Alaska.
- On average, the Forest Service has successfully offered 2/3rds of the ASQ in the past.
- The 1997 TLMP removed 60% of the existing second growth from the available timberlands.
The new ROD doubles the rotation age on the older most productive remaining second growth,
prohibiting second entry on most of it until 2150.
- further reducing the reliability of the alleged 153 mmbf ASQ
- having an adverse effect on future sale economics because most existing roads are in
areas of significant second growth
- running contrary to a long-standing goal in SE Alaska of eventually rotating into
primarily second growth harvest
- The new ROD does nothing to improve second growth management to improve future yields.
It does not address pre-commercial thinning or other stand improvement techniques
recommended by several appellants.
Let Lyons know how you feel about his
illegal decision!
Ask Governor Knowles to protest this unfair treatment of Alaska’s
communities!
Write a letter to your editor — get
the truth out!
Governor Tony Knowles, 3rd Floor State Capitol, PO Box
110001, Juneau, AK 99811-0001
Under Secretary Jim Lyons, Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building, 1400
Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250
Anchorage Daily News, P.O. Box 14900, Anchorage, AK 99514, Email:
Letters@adn.com
Ketchikan Daily News, P.O. Box 7900, Ketchikan, AK 99901, Email:
general@ktnnews.com
Island News, P.O. Box 19430, Thorne Bay, AK 99919
Juneau Empire, 3100 Channel Dr, Juneau, AK 99801-7814, Email:
editor1@alaska.net
Sitka Sentinel, P.O. Box 799, Sitka, AK 99835, Email:
thadp@ptialaska.net
INCLUDE THESE POINTS IN YOUR COMMENTS:
- The 1997 TLMP decision was heralded for its sound science and a thorough public process.
Q: If the science was sound then and the
process so great — why did Lyons choose not to utilize this science and an open
public process again? On what new science did Lyons base the additional withdrawals?
Q: Does the FS have a plan to produce the
full ASQ (2/3rds = 102mmbf) to ensure that the small and medium sized value added
manufacturers that are left will be able to survive?
- The environmental industry has been consistent in its request to set aside more and more
areas in the Tongass National Forest for uses other than timber harvest. Land designated
for timber harvest on the Tongass is now only 5% of the forested lands.
- In the past 10 years the contribution of Alaska’s timber industry to the
state’s economy — in terms of personal income — has shrunk from 5% to less
than 1%.
- Severely reducing a natural, renewable resource industry is not good for our schools. As
timber harvests decrease so do the 25% forest receipt payments to SE communities. These
receipts help fund our schools throughout SE Alaska.
- The environmental industry states its support for Lyons’ TLMP revision, but
complains that his decision doesn’t go far enough. Does this mean they will continue
to oppose, appeal, and litigate all — or the majority of — timber sales?
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