04/15/1996 03:55 PM Senate RES

                                                                               
           SB 180 VALUE-ADDED TIMBER SALES; MARKETING                         
                                                                              
 CHAIRMAN LEMAN brought SB 180 before the committee as the next                
 order of business.  He noted there was a proposed Resources CS,               
 however, there were not enough committee members present to adopt             
 the committee substitute.                                                     
                                                                               
 DUANE ANDERSON, testifying from the Mat-Su Legislative Information            
 Office in opposition to SB 180, said part of continuing problem               
 the lack of boreal forest knowledge, expertise and experience                 
 within almost any level of state management of the timber industry.           
 When people are put into the upper levels of decision making and              
 regulatory creation, etc., that have almost no knowledge of this              
 area so things continue to go from bad to worse.  He commented that           
 Governor Knowles recently created a resource marketing group, and             
 the people on that group that had any timber experience were very             
 marginally capable or familiar with most of the industry.                     
                                                                               
 Mr. Anderson said the state timber sale program is not effective,             
 and, additionally, we are not very quick to realize what we can do            
 to close the gap.  He said the legislation is intended to provide             
 wood for the value-added industry within the state, but he believes           
 this proposal will accomplish exactly the opposite.                           
                                                                               
 He noted the legislation provides that a timber sale contract may             
 provide for a harvest of up to 20,000,000 board feet of timber,               
 which, he said, is a whopping big sale that requires a tremendous             
 amount of infrastructure expense for a logger or anybody proposing            
 to take on the sale.  He suggested there isn't more than maybe one            
 or two current operators in Alaska who could even handle a sale of            
 that size.                                                                    
                                                                               
 In closing, Mr. Anderson said he lauds what the governor is trying            
 to do, but this is not the way to go.  He sees very little of the             
 bill that he considers constructive, and he urged that it not be              
 passed out of committee.                                                      
                                                                               
 Number 526                                                                    
                                                                               
 CHAIRMAN LEMAN noted the committee adopted a version "c" committee            
 substitute in February, but a new version "g" was now before the              
 committee for its consideration.                                              
                                                                               
 Number 537                                                                    
                                                                               
 ERIK HOLLAND, testifying from Fairbanks, voiced his agreement with            
 the previous speaker's comments.  He said he conducted an informal            
 poll in Fairbanks which indicates that the public in Fairbanks is             
 not in support of a large scale timber harvest.  He  also suggested           
 that the export of raw logs should be stopped before increasing               
 timber harvest.                                                               
                                                                               
 There being no further testimony on SB 180, CHAIRMAN LEMAN closed             
 the public hearing on SB 180 and stated it would be set aside until           
 the committee had a quorum and could take action on it.