The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority trustees come across as a bit heavy-handed in their effort to make an argument that their land parcels in Ketchikan and Petersburg need to be sold and logged before Congress acts on a land sale agreement that is before the Congressional body.

To suggest that the S.E. timber industry will collapse and leave their timberland valueless in the next 6-months seems improbable. Timbered land parcel values very likely fluctuate with market conditions rather than the state of the S.E. Alaska timber industry.

To play Ketchikan and Petersburg residents as pawns...