Lisa Murkowski

This is a significant departure then from what appears to be the consensus in the direction that we're taking.

I think one of the reasons is that there are still some outstanding questions on where we make the difference here.

When you're to provide for a level of tourism, when you can't take the tourists who are coming off the cruise ship out to do a quick floatplane trip, land in one of the lakes in Misty Fjords or Traitors Cove, it's kind of tough.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just very briefly.

I worry that we don't have our operators who are able to hold on until we can transition to that second growth.

That's what your agency says.

When you say 'less,' would you agree that it was 21 million board-feet last year?

Well, this would be one opportunity for you to view for yourself.

If the State of Alaska and Alabama and Wyoming refuse to pay, as the Governor's letter certainly suggests, I mean, what do you do?

This is in regards to continuing discussions regarding the Forest Service's potential acquisition of Shee Atika Incorporated's lands at Cube Cove on Admiralty Island.

I think that oversight role is important. And I worry that we might lose some aspect of that oversight with this expansion that we're talking about.

I have questioned that at a time where budgets are very, very tight, we would be purchasing more land when we're not able to adequately care for, maintain, provide the resources for what it is that we have.

I would certainly hope that at a bare minimum there is no effort to collect late fees and penalties.

I hope today that you can give me a reason to believe that we're not going to be sitting here again next year.

I do support the agency's many programs that deal with recreation and with wildlife.

I want to be clear. I do support the agency's many programs that deal with recreation and with wildlife.

You have got to find a different path here that does not punish these struggling rural communities for the agency's failure to manage our Nation's forests.

I think that this decision by the agency represents the latest in a long line of misguided Forest Service actions that have had a crippling impact on Southeast Alaska.

I just can't go back to the superintendent of the schools in Wrangell, Alaska, because for him, these few thousands of dollars mean everything to him and his budget.

I believe that this situation teaches a larger lesson about the failures of the agency's current forest management policy.

If these reserves are conveyed to Sealaska by Congress it will almost certainly lead to a new petition to list the goshawk and wolf as endangered species and the distinct possibility that they will be so designated.

I worked with Secretary Salazar on the agreement involving the King Cove road reflected in the Secretary's memorandum of March 21.

It seems to me that the solution really here is to do what the Ramah decision laid out, which is to pay the tribes the full amount of their contract support costs.

The outcry from tribes from folks back home on this particular issue is really loud.

So the question is, will that be clearly mapped out far enough in advance so that Conoco can advance in 2014, or Shell can advance in 2014?