Just look at the way they've already managed their lands and you'll understand why no more federal land should be given to the university under the University Land Bill. The university was given the one-time cutting rights to 58,000 acres of State land near Yakataga, between Cordova and Yakutat on the Gulf of Alaska coast. This land could have harbored sustainable forestry in the form of selective logging for a very long time. But in the last three years the university has clearcut its lands there mercilessly, managing them in a manner inconsistent with the policies of the university. It is too bad the university cannot see the trees for the forest.
Trees turn into money.
I know you agree Alaskan jobs must be a primary objective of this and subsequent timber sales. According to the State Department of Labor, over 70 percent of Wasser and Winter's employees in 1995 were non-residents. Just like all University of Alaska timber in the rest of the state, the timber cut in Yakataga was shipped to Asia in the form of raw round logs. Not one Alaskan mill worker was employed processing those logs. One can only imagine how many Asian workers those logs put to work.