00SPONSOR SUBSTITUTE FOR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 49                                                                  
01 Relating to opposition to a moratorium on the building of roads in the roadless                                         
02 areas of national forests.                                                                                              
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                              
04  WHEREAS the Clinton Administration has directed the United States Department of                                      
05 Agriculture to establish an interim policy regarding roadless areas in national forests; and                            
06  WHEREAS the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, is                                              
07 considering a proposed two-year moratorium on the building of roads in those roadless areas;                            
08 and                                                                                                                     
09  WHEREAS the application of such a moratorium would be especially inappropriate                                       
10 on the Tongass National Forest as the Forest Service has recently completed a revision of the                           
11 Tongass Land Management Plan at a cost to taxpayers exceeding $13,000,000; and                                          
12  WHEREAS the National Forest Management Act of 1976 requires that the public be                                       
13 allowed to participate in the development, review, and revision of land management plans for                            
14 national forests such as the Tongass National Forest; and                                                               

01  WHEREAS, after an extensive public process, the Tongass Land Management Plan                                         
02 has already considered the management of roadless areas on the Tongass National Forest; and                             
03  WHEREAS, under the Tongass Land Management Plan, the United States Department                                        
04 of Agriculture, Forest Service, plans to offer an average of only 200,000,000 board feet of                             
05 timber annually, which is far below the level needed for the timber industry that remains in                            
06 the area; and                                                                                                           
07  WHEREAS the proposed moratorium could eliminate the timber industry that remains                                     
08 in Southeast Alaska by further reducing the commercial forest lands available for harvest on                            
09 the Tongass National Forest; and                                                                                        
10  WHEREAS application of the proposed moratorium in the state also violates the spirit                                 
11 of the "no more" provision of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act                                       
12 (ANILCA), which prohibits federal agencies from establishing new wilderness areas in the                                
13 state without an act of Congress;                                                                                       
14  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature opposes any moratorium on the                                       
15 development of the roadless areas of national forests that overrides the forest planning process                        
16 provided for by the National Forest Management Act of 1976, which allows full public                                    
17 participation in decisions affecting the multiple use of national forest lands; and be it                               
18  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature particularly objects to the                                       
19 imposition of an interim policy that includes a moratorium on the development of roadless                               
20 areas on the Tongass National Forest that would result in any reduction in the commercial                               
21 forest lands available for harvest beyond the restriction embodied in the current Tongass Land                          
22 Management Plan.                                                                                                        
23  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                              
24 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President                            
25 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture; and to the                                    
26 Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the                                         
27 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.