So this is kind of a 'trust me' moment.

I do hope, Chief, that you can assure me today that USFS plans to appeal the court's decision in Sequoia ForestKeeper vs. Tidwell.

I'd appreciate that.

I don't think we've got the information from these three regions that would provide for an informed judgment on the merits of the proposal.

I think we're already seeing some absurd consequences.

I would like to raise a recent court decision that I believe has the potential to severely hamper the ability of the USFS to get work done on the ground.

I would rather the people of Ketchikan and Prince of Wales be able to harvest timber, be able to have jobs in the small saw mills than figure out ways that we're piecing together Secure Rural Schools program funding.

Last year in the appropriations bill, language was included that temporarily prevented this ruling from taking place.

But, we're assuming that that's going to be the case. We get lucky, basically?

We need to be able to find a way to work together to be able to move forward.

my hope is that in addition to the questions that I had posed in my two letters to you, that we will not see a pre-emptive veto.

Well, I guess it remains to be seen.

It's hard for me to imagine any USFS action that some group could not appeal or delay.

Do you worry that not only the Chugach National Forest, but the others, the other eight, might start revising their plan under this new rule, and then as we saw before, the rule gets thrown out in court.

In light of the President's announcement last week of an Executive order creating an interagency working group...

Adding more burden to that already difficult and complex structure is not going to make Alaska more competitive.

I'm glad the President got the message and did not request CMSP funding.

I was disappointed to learn that this year the Regional Ocean Partnership competitive grants support activities that contribute to achieving the priorities identified by Regional Ocean Partnerships while also advancing National Ocean…

The National Ocean Policy will be expensive and we recognize that.

I commend the resource management bodies here in the Alaska region, like the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for proactively developing and integrating ecosystem-oriented management approaches into their decision-making process.

I do believe that the concerns that have been expressed by a number of industries, state and local governments, I think we recognize this is yet another attempt by the executive branch to tell us how we can and how we cannot use our oceans…

However, I do not support national guidelines that dictate standards for ocean management.

We need more science and baseline information in order to effectively incorporate ecosystem-based management and decision-making.

This wrong-handed proposal coming out of the Administration could negatively impact our success here in the economy.

it's more than a little bit disconcerting to hear that the unifying theme is that there is no communication.