2000-02-08                     Senate Journal                      Page 2224
SB 253                                                                       
SENATE BILL NO. 253 BY THE SENATE RULES COMMITTEE                              
BY REQUEST OF THE GOVERNOR, entitled:                                          
                                                                              
An Act relating to five-year schedules of timber                              
sales planned on land managed by the Department                                
of Natural Resources; and providing for an effective                           
date.                                                                          
                                                                               
was read the first time and referred to the Resources and Finance              
Committees.                                                                    
                                                                               
Zero fiscal note published today from Department of Natural                    
Resources.                                                                     
                                                                               
Governors transmittal letter dated February 4:                                 
                                                                               
Dear President Pearce:                                                         
                                                                               
As part of the Administration's efforts to operate efficiently and             
responsibly meet budget constraints, I am transmitting this bill to            
change the requirement for state publication of the five-year timber           
sale schedule from annual to biennial. This change will increase the           
efficiency of state government without diminishing the quality of the          
schedule or the public's opportunity to comment.                               
                                                                               
Before a timber sale on state land may currently proceed, the                  
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is required to list the sale             
in two separate five-year sale schedules. Although this bill provides          
that a sale would only be listed on one schedule, it would still be            
required to appear for two years.                                              
                                                                               
The timber schedules are scoping documents, not decision documents,            
and no change is proposed to the decision documents issued for                 
every proposed sale. These Forest Land Use Plan/final best interest            
findings will still be published for every proposed sale and subject           
to public and agency review.                                                   
                                                                               
                                                                               

2000-02-08                     Senate Journal                      Page 2225
SB 253                                                                       
Publishing the five-year timber schedule is a time-intensive task.             
The change proposed in this bill, to publish the schedule every other          
year instead of every year, will continue to provide the public notice         
that interested parties have come to rely on when scrutinizing                 
Alaska's timber sale program. But it will also allow DNR greater               
ability to direct its efforts toward other management concerns during          
years in which the schedule need not be produced.                              
                                                                               
					Sincerely,                                                                
					/s/                                                                       
					Tony Knowles                                                              
					Governor