Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 104 Part 6.djvu/41

 PUBLIC LAW 101-626—NOV. 28, 1990 104 STAT. 4431 (3) assure that all timber offered under each contract be substantially harvested within three years or the Secretary shall withhold further offerings pursuant to such contract, unless harvesting has been delayed by third-party litigation; (4) assure that the Secretary determines the location and size of sale units and the timing of timber harvests; (5) allow rejection of timber offered under the contracts. Upon rejection of any timber offered, the Secretary may re-offer such timber to any qualified bidder under independent national forest timber sales. If the rejected timber is subsequently sold within 12 months, that amount of timber shall be subtracted from the volume remaining under the appropriate contract; (6) assure that utility logs offered under the contracts shall be counted against contract volume requirements. As used in this paragraph, the term "utility log" means the same as it does in the official Log Scaling and Grading Rules, Northwest Log Rules Advisory Group, January 1, 1982; (7) assure that purchaser road credits are provided under the contracts in a manner consistent with independent national forest timber sale procedures; (8) assure that the price of timber offered under the contracts shall be adjusted to be comparable with that of independent national forest timber sales, with stumpage rates and profitability criteria comparable to those of independent purchasers in competitive sales; and (9) assure that timber offered under the contracts meets economic criteria consistent with that of independent national forest timber sales. (d) CERTIFICATION TO CONGRESS. — Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary is directed to make the necessary revisions to the text of the contracts to reflect the modifications to such contracts made by subsection (c) of this section. The Secretary shall promptly, and in no event later than ninety days after the date of enactment of this Act, transmit the text of the modified contracts to the Congress together with a certification that these revisions are in compliance with the modifications made by subsection (c). Until such time as the Secretary transmits the text of the modified contracts to the Congress, but no later than ninety days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary is authorized to conduct timber sale operations on the Tongass National Forest in accordance with the provisions of the contracts as they existed on the day before the date of enactment of this Act. At such time as the Secretary transmits the modified contracts to Congress, or ninety days after the date of enactment of this Act, whichever is sooner, the Secretary shall conduct timber sale operations on the Tongass National Forest only in accordance with the provisions of the modified contracts. (e) STUDY.— Within one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall trsmsmit a study to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in the Senate and to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs in the House of Representatives which includes the following: (1) an assessment of whether the Secretary can meet the provisions of the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (Public Law 94-588), the Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960 (16 U.S.C. 528 et seq.) and other laws applicable to the management of the national forests while providing the volume of timber required by the modified contracts. In conjunction

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