[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 24, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1356-E1357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BEETLE ACTIVITY SPREADS, 892,831 ACRES INFESTED IN ONE YEAR
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HON. DON YOUNG
of alaska
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, July 24, 1996
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call the attention
of my colleagues to an eye-opening article that appeared in the July
issue of Resource Review. It details the extent of the ongoing spruce
beetle infestation in southcentral Alaska and reports that beetle
activity increased 40 percent last year. Over 32,433 acres are infested
in the Chugach National Forest alone, with mortality exceeding 60
percent in some stands. The current total for all of southcentral
Alaska is a new record--892,831 acres of dead and dying trees. This is
not a record we should be proud of.
The infested areas of southcentral Alaska are now far too large to
permit wildfires to burn naturally. With so much dead wood lying on the
forest floor a fire could burn hot enough to sterilize the soil and
threaten the health of some of Alaska's priceless salmon stocks. Such a
fire is a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, waiting for
disasters instead of preventing them seems to be the preferred policy
of the current Secretary of Agriculture.
Every day the beetle infests more and more timber while those
entrusted with our National Forests do less and less about it. Rather
than taking necessary action under existing law, the Secretary of
Agriculture has put up roadblocks every step of the way. He recently
directed managers on the Chugach National Forest to cancel the few
salvage operations they had planned. Some of these sales, it was
reported to me, were in the planning process for years. Canceling them
may be sound politics but it is irresponsible forestry. Playing
politics with National Forests is playing with fire--I do not want to
see Alaskans get burned.
Even without major fires Alaskans are suffering the effects of the
beetle infestation: property values are declining as the insect spreads
from Federal to private lands; the visitor industry is losing business
as once beautiful viewsheds turn brown and decay; and local residents
are forced to sit by and watch their favorite recreation and hunting
areas become wastelands. All this as Washington bureaucrats bicker and
pass the buck.
Through responsible application of salvage logging the spreading
sickness in southcentral Alaska can be cured, averting the risk of fire
and creating jobs and a healthy forest to pass on to our children. I
encourage my colleagues to read the article, the text of which follows
my remarks, and hope that it will inspire them to join me in supporting
sound forest management under the emergency timber salvage law as well
as other long-term initiatives promoting forest health.
Beetle Activity Spreads, 892,831 Acres Infested in One Year
While Alaskans continue to debate the merits of cutting
dead, beetle-killed timber across private and public lands in
Southcentral Alaska, spruce beetle activity increased 40
percent in 1995 over the devastating levels detected the
previous year.
Approximately 892,831 acres of on-going and newly infested
areas were detected last year, the highest level of activity
on record. The most extensive areas of beetle infestations
are in Southcentral Alaska (683,281) acres) and the Cooper
River basin (170,767 acres). More than 25 million spruce
trees have been infested.
The Forest Service's 1995 Forest Health Management Report
revealed that beetle activity in the Chugach National Forest
doubled in 1995 to more than 32,433 acres. It noted that
beetle activity is increasing throughout the Turnagain Arm
area, including Girdwood, Twenty Mile, Ingram Creek, Sixmile
River drainage and Hope. The Forest Service also noted the
beetle infestation is intense throughout many areas of the
Kenai Peninsula, including Kachemak Bay. From Tustumena Lake
to Homer, beetle activity is extreme. More than 400,000 acres
of spruce are infested with many stands having more than 60%
mortality.
A significant increase in beetle-killed timber was found on
the west side of Cook Inlet and the infestation more than
doubled in the Anchorage Bowl where more than 8,000 acres of
spruce were hit. Areas in Anchorage with the heaviest
activity are Hillside, Fire Island, Kincaid Park, and the
Eagle River and Eklutna River drainages.
With a dry, warm summer at hand, foresters believe severe
outbreaks of beetle activity will continue throughout the
summer. While there is ongoing debate on the fire danger
posed by standing, beetle-killed timber compared to green
timber, foresters agree that fire danger over the long term
is heightened considerably once the dead trees fall over on
top of each other and fill the floor of the forest.
Three salvage logging proposals have been proposed for the
Chugach National Forest to harvest beetle-killed timber, but
the Forest Service--in the face of intense pressure from
environmental groups--has scrapped one plan, severely reduced
the scope of another and is considering new public comment on
a third.
Under the salvage law passed by Congress last year, the
Forest Service had initially identified about 1,300 acres of
12,000 heavily-infested forested acres in the Sixmile area
for logging. That proposal has now been reduced to a mere 182
acres--2% of the infested trees in the Sixmile area. A
logging plan for the heavily-infested Seattle Creek drainage
has been discarded, but the Forest Service is
[[Page E1357]]
reviewing public comments for a third proposal in the
Resurrection and Palmer Creek valleys near Hope.
Environmentalists are not satisfied with the Forest Service
decision to scale back logging plans and have admitted they
won't be happy until ALL logging plans are dropped.
The Alaska Center for the Environment (ACE) has formed the
Forest Defense Network to whip up public opposition against
logging and influencing public policy. In a recent mass
mailing, ACE noted the Forest Defense Network is kicking into
high gear with a door-to-door campaign. Media campaigns are
being developed and demonstrations are being planned among
other events and programs. ACE is asking Alaskans to join its
network, write letters, participate in direct actions and
``help stop senseless logging.''
The Campaign has generated scores of letters to the
Anchorage Daily News and the Forest Service in opposition to
logging. ACE has asked its members to host letter writing
parties targeting not only the Anchorage Daily News, but
newspapers outside Alaska, including the Los Angles Times.
The cover of the ACE mailer featured a picture of a
clearcut with the superimposed headline, ``It's Time To
Clearcut Our Kenai Peninsula: Do You Agree or Disagree?'' The
mailer was filled with emotion and left readers with the
impression that a healthy and green forest was being clearcut
at alarming rates by the worst polluters in the entire
Pacific Northwest.
Absent from the mailer was the fact that logging is
occurring in areas heavily infested by the spruce bark beetle
and that the infestation is transforming Kenai Peninsula
viewsheds into grave-yards of brown dead or dying trees.
Forests concede logging cannot stop the infestation, but
emphasize that a combined program of harvesting and
reforestation can restore forest health much faster than if
no action is taken.
Forest scientist explain that new harvesting programs
utilizing modern forest management initiatives to protect
wildlife and fisheries is a reforestation program that will
lead to a young, healthy and vigorous-growing forest. Since
most of Southcentral Alaska is now a fire suppression area,
they say logging would take out the dead trees, as opposed to
nature's way--fire. If no logging is allowed, many timber
stands on the Kenai may revert to grasslands.
With its varied patterns of land ownership, the Kenia
Peninsula is a great ecological, long-term experiment in
forest management. While extensive logging is occurring near
Homer on State and private land, very little cutting is
taking place on the much larger expanses of the Peninsula.
Only a fraction of the beetle infested spruce will be cut on
the Chugach while no commercial logging will occur on the
Kenia National Wildlife Refuge and Kenai Fjords National
Park, Foresters will be watching the different rates of
regrowth, company areas actively managed for logging and
reforestation with those forests left to stand as gray
ghosts.
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