[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

                                 ______
                                 

                             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.

                          ____________________