SJR 2: Relating to opposition to the inclusion of national forests in Alaska within President Clinton's Roadless Area Conservation rule and supporting the overturning of this inclusion by litigation, by congressional action, or by action of President-elect Bush.
00 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 2 01 Relating to opposition to the inclusion of national forests in Alaska within President 02 Clinton's Roadless Area Conservation rule and supporting the overturning of this 03 inclusion by litigation, by congressional action, or by action of President-elect Bush. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS the forest products industry has been and continues to be an important 06 economic sector in Alaska that contributes significant employment income to the economy of 07 the state, and, through purchases of timber from National Forest System lands, contributes 08 significant revenue to local communities through the 25 percent revenue sharing provisions of 09 federal law; and 10 WHEREAS President Clinton's Roadless Area Conservation rule is contrary to the 11 land management planning process for individual forests established by the National Forest 12 Management Act of 1976 and its implementing regulations; and 13 WHEREAS application of President Clinton's roadless policy to the Tongass and 14 Chugach National Forests designates significant additional acreage as administrative, de facto 15 wilderness areas within Alaska; and
01 WHEREAS application of the President's roadless policy in Alaska is contrary to sec. 02 708(b)(4), Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which specifically 03 prohibits another roadless area review and evaluation (RARE) on national forest lands in 04 Alaska for the purpose of setting aside commercial forest land as wilderness; and 05 WHEREAS application of the President's roadless policy in Alaska is contrary to sec. 06 1326(a) of ANILCA, which prohibits the withdrawal of more than 5,000 acres, in the 07 aggregate, of public lands within Alaska without the consent of the Congress; and 08 WHEREAS application of the President's roadless policy in Alaska is contrary to sec. 09 1326(b) of ANILCA, which expressly prohibits studies of public lands for the purpose of 10 considering the establishment of new conservation system units, recreation areas, national 11 conservation areas, or for related or similar purposes; and 12 WHEREAS the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990 and other Congressional and 13 administrative actions have withdrawn more than 97 percent of the Tongass National Forest 14 from availability for timber harvest and other resource development opportunities; and 15 WHEREAS the 1997 and 1999 revisions of the Tongass Land Management Plan 16 (TLMP) further reduced the available commercial forest lands in the Tongass to 576,000 17 acres out of nearly 6,000,000 suitable acres across the forest; and 18 WHEREAS the available commercial forest lands remaining after the 1999 TLMP 19 amendments are insufficient to satisfy the raw material needs of Southeast Alaska's forest 20 products manufacturing industry, given the plan's maximum annual economic offering level 21 of 153,000,000 board feet; and 22 WHEREAS, by applying the roadless policy to the Tongass, the federal government 23 has further reduced the available commercial forest lands in the Tongass to less than half the 24 currently available acreage and will further reduce the maximum annual offering level to less 25 than 5,000,000 board feet; and 26 WHEREAS application of the President's roadless policy to the Tongass, together 27 with Under Secretary Lyons' 1999 unilateral TLMP amendment, nullifies the results of the 28 United States Forest Service's 1986-1997 planning process in the Tongass, which cost the 29 taxpayers more than $13,000,000; and 30 WHEREAS application of the President's roadless policy to the Tongass, together 31 with Under Secretary Lyons' 1999 unilateral TLMP amendment, will further destabilize the
01 already unstable timber-based economy of Southeast Alaska by forcing the closure of most of 02 the remaining forest products manufacturing facilities, resulting in loss of employment and 03 associated negative socioeconomic impacts within timber-dependent communities and the 04 Southeast Alaska region; and 05 WHEREAS the Chugach National Forest has spent three years and several million 06 dollars conducting a revision to its land management plan and is within a few months of 07 issuing the Final Environmental Impact Statement for that plan; and 08 WHEREAS a wide range of interests from the Alaska public has been involved in the 09 Chugach land management planning process, working to develop a range of plan alternatives 10 that respond to the public's interests, needs, and concerns, and the President's roadless policy 11 will render that involvement and expense pointless and undermine public confidence in the 12 planning process; and 13 WHEREAS the public, through the Chugach Land Management Plan revision 14 scoping process, has expressed deep concern that the approximately 130,000 acres of the 15 Chugach National Forest suffering from spruce bark beetle damage must be managed for the 16 restoration of a green, healthy forest, and the President's roadless policy prevents access 17 required by land managers to accomplish that restoration work; and 18 WHEREAS application of the President's roadless policy will render it virtually 19 impossible for inholders and adjacent landowners, particularly families and small business 20 owners, to obtain the access to their property that was promised them in ANILCA; 21 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature strongly opposes President 22 Clinton's Roadless Area Conservation rule, and particularly opposes the illegal inclusion of 23 the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in the Roadless Area Conservation rule; and be it 24 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature fully supports Governor 25 Knowles' decision to litigate against the application of the Roadless Area Conservation rule to 26 National Forest System lands in Alaska; and be it 27 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges members of the 28 Alaska delegation in Congress to use all available means to set aside the Roadless Area 29 Conservation rule through Congressional action; and be it 30 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges President-elect 31 George W. Bush to overturn the classification and inclusion of the national forests located
01 inside Alaska's boundaries. 02 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President- 03 elect of the United States; the Honorable Ann Veneman, United States Secretary of 04 Agriculture-designee; Mike Dombeck, Chief of the United States Forest Service, United 05 States Department of Agriculture; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank 06 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of 07 the Alaska delegation in Congress.