You are right, it is a checkerboard of Federal ownership.

We would like to set a deadline for getting all that done, which includes accelerating the surveying.

I would like to get your commitment that the BLM will abide by its obligations and complete the land conveyance program by 2009.

I hope that under the President's new program that we can take some steps to try to thin out some of those dead trees.

I think more people in the Senate, and more of your people, need to be exposed to the whole of the totality of forest areas in Alaska in order to make sure we have a sound policy.

I think we have got to find some way to prevent people from holding up the harvesting of timber.

I have lived now through too many agreements with people over what happens in Alaska.

If Federal and State people do not fight their fires, the people who suffer the most are the people who have the inholdings.

We would like to talk to you about the proposed regulations of the Park Service concerning commercial use.

I would like your assurance that the Department and the Park Service are committed to working with the State of Alaska, interested parties and Alaska Native groups in developing regulations which are consistent with the 1980 law.

An issue of concern to myself and Senator Lisa Murkowski is the pace of the Bureau of Land Management's Alaska Conveyance program.

I think it takes someone with firm professional experience to oversee operations on a day-to-day basis up there.