00SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 40                                                                                          
01 Relating to extension of the United States Forest Service timber sale contract with                                     
02 the Ketchikan Pulp Company.                                                                                             
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04  WHEREAS, for the last 40 years, the timber industry operating on national forest land                                  
05 in Southeast Alaska has been the largest private employer in Southeast Alaska; and                                      
06  WHEREAS the United States Forest Service strategy for creating permanent year-                                         
07 round employment through a timber industry in Southeast Alaska has been to offer long-term                              
08 contracts to attract pulp mills to use, and add value to, low-grade and by-product materials                            
09 from timber harvesting; these pulp mills serve as a market for pulp logs and chips from the                             
10 sawmills in Southeast Alaska; and                                                                                       
11  WHEREAS pulp mills assure full utilization and protect forest health by using that                                     
12 significant portion of the Tongass National Forest that consists of dead, dying, and over-                              
13 mature timber; and                                                                                                      
14  WHEREAS, since passage of the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990 (TTRA), a                                              

01 pulp mill and a major sawmill have closed, and more than 40 percent of the timber industry                              
02 has been lost, all of which has created severe social and economic harm to the timber industry,                         
03 its workers, and timber-dependent communities in Southeast Alaska; and                                                  
04  WHEREAS Ketchikan Pulp Company (KPC), which obtained a long-term contract to                                           
05 help create jobs in Southeast Alaska, is the sole remaining pulp mill in Alaska, a major                                
06 employer in Southeast Alaska, and the market for pulp logs and chips from all the other                                 
07 sawmills in Southeast Alaska; and                                                                                       
08  WHEREAS the loss of the KPC pulp mill would cause the loss of the entire industry                                      
09 now operating on the Tongass National Forest with devastating social and economic effects                               
10 on families and communities throughout Southeast Alaska; and                                                            
11  WHEREAS the KPC pulp mill faces an uncertain future, not of its own making, as                                         
12 a result of the continuing log shortage created by United States Forest Service policy, and as                          
13 a result of the requirement that more than $155,000,000 in capital expenditures be made over                            
14 the next few years to meet new and ever changing federal environmental standards and                                    
15 operating needs; and                                                                                                    
16  WHEREAS, as a matter of economic common sense, KPC cannot make all the                                                 
17 necessary expenditures without the federal government extending its contract for a sufficient                           
18 period to amortize those expenditures; and                                                                              
19  WHEREAS the legislature finds that an additional 15 years is a minimum reasonable                                      
20 period to extend the KPC's timber sale contract to allow such amortization;                                             
21  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully urges the Alaska                                         
22 delegation in Congress and the governor to take all steps necessary, this year, to extend the                           
23 Ketchikan Pulp Company long-term contract for an additional 15 years because such an                                    
24 extension is critical to the environmental, social, and economic well-being of the Tongass                              
25 National Forest timber workers, their families, and timber-dependent communities in Southeast                           
26 Alaska and because such an extension is in the public interest of the State of Alaska.                                  
27  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                                
28 United States; the Honorable Daniel R. Glickman, Secretary of the U.S. Department of                                    
29 Agriculture; the Honorable Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior;                             
30 the Honorable Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable                                
31 Strom Thurmond, President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate; and to the Honorable Ted                                      

01 Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young,                                  
02 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.