Legislature(2011 - 2012)BUTROVICH 205
02/19/2011 10:00 AM Senate RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB24 | |
| SB44 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 24 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 44 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 44-SOUTHEAST STATE FOREST
CO-CHAIR WAGONER announced the consideration of SB 44.
12:07:14 PM
WADE ZAMMIT, President and CEO, Sealaska Timber Corporation,
testified in support of SB 44 on behalf of Ron Wolfe. He said
that there is an expected decline in the population of Southeast
Alaska and this is mirrored in the health of the timber
industry. He explained that Sealaska believes that the timber
industry is essential to the economy of Southeast Alaska.
Currently, a vast majority of the Southeast region is owned by
the federal government; with 87 percent of the area set aside as
parks, wildernesses, national monuments and other
classifications that preclude development. Development that
occurs on the remaining land must achieve resource protection
through various federal regulatory compliances. SB 44 will help
stabilize the timber from state lands and allow state forests to
be managed in a sustainable fashion. These lands will be managed
in accordance with the Alaska Forest Resources and Practices
Act, which has demonstrated to be working well to protect water
quality, anadromous fish habitats, and wildlife. He noted that
his testimony has also been submitted to the committee for full
disclosure.
12:10:03 PM
JEREMY MAXAND, representing himself, commented on SB 44. He
expressed concern that the vast majority of timber harvested
from the Wrangell Island would be round log exported to the
lower 48 or another country for value-added processing. He said
that he wants to see the trees in the state forest directly
benefit the communities they were taken from and are impacting.
Currently, by using the forest within a multi-use category the
community benefits from forest recreation and habitat. However,
if these forests transfer to state forests and are immediately
shipped out of the state there will be no incentive for Wrangell
to revitalize their timber economy for long term usage. He said
that he hopes SB 44, as it moves forward, will contain some very
strong language which would create incentives to keep the logs
in Alaska to be processed and used locally.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER asked if there is any effort in the community
to start a business which could use the timber instead of
exporting it.
MR. MAXAND replied that there is a ten-year proposed Tongass
sale that the community of Wrangell is looking into. He said
that they are concerned these trees will be cut down too fast.
Wrangell has a unique opportunity because there is mill site in
existence and, with the logs on the island, could be sustained
for a long time. However, if the incentive is to have a large
company come in, cut the trees down, and ship the logs out, then
that is what will happen. He asked what the state is doing to
help communities have a sustainable timber operation. He noted
that the community would love to help and support legislation
focused on that issue.
12:14:46 PM
CARL PORTMAN, Deputy Director, Resource Development Council
(RDC), testified in support of SB 44. He explained that
expanding the forest would help sustain the forest products
industry, save jobs, and help the economy. The state land
identified for inclusion into the new state forest has been
consistently managed for timber harvesting. Designation of these
forests would ensure that they would remain in state ownership
and support the forest products industry long-term in Southeast
Alaska. He noted that a majority of timber in Southeast Alaska
is on federal land; however federal timber sales have sharply
declined. Much of the new state forest contains young second-
growth stands and there is broad support for shifting timber
harvesting in Southeast Alaska from old growth to second growth.
The new state forest and proposed additional partials will help
provide a sustainable timber supply to local mills and
accelerate the transition to second-growth timber. He noted that
95 percent of the Tongass National Forest is closed to logging.
The Tongass itself comprises about 94 percent of the land base
in Southeast Alaska. He explained that as a result land
management in Southeast Alaska is weighted towards conservation
and non-development uses. Under the current Tongass Land
Management plan the annual harvest ceiling has been reduced from
527 million board feet to 267 million. He noted that only 30
million board feet of timber has been harvested annually in
recent years, which is less than 15 percent of the allowable
cut.
He explained that in regards to state land the Department of
Natural Resources (DNR) manages over 159,000 acres of uplands in
southern Southeast Alaska. Of this land, approximately one-third
would be in the state forest if SB 44 is enacted. He noted that
the remaining land is designated to other uses such as
recreation, water sources, and land sales.
12:19:06 PM
OWEN GRAHAM, Secretary, Alaska Forest Association, testified in
support of SB 44. He said that thus far Ketchikan has lost 85
percent of their employment in the timber industry, due to a
lack of timber supply. This piece of legislation will help with
this and they encourage any additions to the timber sales
program in the future. He noted that the association encourages
local manufacture and the best way to do so is by having enough
timber supply to sustain the mills. Most of the wood that the
state has sold in the last five years has been domestically
processed. However, he explained that the state needs to hang on
to log exports as a tool to manage their programs if the local
or domestic market is not doing well.
12:21:49 PM
ELAINE PRICE, Project Manager, City Council, testified in
support of SB 44. She said that part of the state forest
expansion would be in Coffman Cove and will provide a
sustainable base for timber management. She agreed with Mr.
Maxand that these forests should be locally beneficial by being
manufactured locally. Because of the way the Tongass National
Forest is currently being managed it is not dependable and every
timber sale has a law suit filed against it. She noted that the
Viking Mill currently employs 45 people directly in Klawock and
is a huge economic benefit to Prince of Wales Island as a whole.
12:23:43 PM
MIKE SALLEE, Owner and operator of a small saw mill, testified
in opposition of SB 44. He said one of the parcels proposed in
this bill is North Gravina which lies adjacent to his family's
homestead. He explained that the logging of Mental Health Trust
Land on other parts of Gravina has trashed numerous areas and
severely limits passage through them. He said that converting
parcels to state forest in order to realize the return on future
investments in thinning is not justified. The amount of
previously logged lands in the North Gravina parcel consists of
a very few steeply sloped areas in one small corner of the
parcel. He noted that another distressing aspect of SB 44 is the
contingent practice of round-log export. He explained that as a
mill operator he gets numerous requests for yellow cedar and he
finds it egregious that Alaska "allows the continued bleeding
away of wood-processing jobs with round log exports." He said
that SB 44, in its current form, primarily benefits a few large
scale timber operators.
12:27:01 PM
PAUL MCINTOSH, representing himself, testified in support of SB
44. He explained that he lived in Southeast Alaska from 1978 to
2001 and witnessed the closure of the pulp mills in Sitka and
Ketchikan. The majority of the land in Southeast Alaska is
federal land and one-third of the Tongass National Forest is
congressionally designated wilderness. He stressed that there
are no federal acres in Southeast Alaska that are permanently
designated for sustainable, science-based, and long-term timber
management. He questioned how a forest product business could
even consider this timber supply reliable or economical for
purposes of business planning. He urged the committee's support
of SB 44.
12:30:01 PM
ERIC LEE, representing himself, expressed strong concern about
SB 44. He said that the timber industry claims that round log
export can create jobs and there is very little money to be made
in the domestic market. However, round log export is only
valuable in the short-term, it is not sustainable. He explained
that when the trees are gone, the logging companies leave and
the jobs are gone. He said that on the other hand local value-
added processing creates jobs that are sustainable, stay in the
community, add to the local economy, and concern the forest for
subsistence uses. The notion that round log export is good for
the local economies is a myth. SB 44 is about gaining access to
timber that can be exported in the round because the laws on
such exporting on federal lands are much more stringent than on
state land.
12:33:40 PM
JOSEPH SEBASTIAN, commercial fisherman, expressed strong concern
on SB 44. He said that the real problem is that there is no
future in logging and exporting cathedral cedar trees. He
explained that the majority of sales will be exported. These are
trees that are 400 to 600 years old and are irreplaceable. He
noted that the wide distance between the proposed partials will
make it expensive and difficult to administer. He said that
"what were once federal deficit timber sales will now be state
deficit timber sales."
12:37:43 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER closed on-line testimony.
12:37:50 PM
SHELLY WRIGHT, Executive Director, Southeast Conference,
testified in support of SB 44. She said that the communities in
Southeast Alaska are struggling to survive and part of the
struggle is a lack of jobs. She explained that there used to be
a timber industry in Southeast that supported communities and
gave financial support for schools and infrastructure. She said
that she has been told that the timber industry is "a thing of
the past." However, an article in the Juneau Empire just
recently stated that the Alaska State Retirement Fund officials
are looking to invest in the timber industry in the lower 48.
She explained that the state forest will be a small way to
stabilize investments in the future for communities. The
existence of a timber industry in Southeast Alaska depends on
immediate action in order to provide a supply of economically
viable sales. She stressed that there are 17 million acres in
the Tongass National Forest and SB 44 will secure 48,472 acres
for timber harvest management by the Division of Forestry. This
is a small amount of land in the big picture, but it could go a
long way in maintaining the stability of Southeast Alaska's
people. She urged the committee to support the expansion of the
Alaska State Forest through SB 44 and stressed the importance of
opening the Tongass National Forest up to responsible resource
development.
12:41:55 PM
LINDSAY KETCHAL, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska
Conservation Council (SEACC), expressed concern about SB 44. She
said she serves on the Tongass Futures Round Table and described
discussions they had about how to maintain a viable timber
industry. She recognized that part of SB 44 is an attempt to
help sustain some of this existing industry, such as "ma and pa
businesses," Icy Straits, and Viking Mill. However, the
locations of some of the proposed parcels do not make sense in
regards to the location of these mills. The question that needs
to be addressed is: "how are we going to develop and sustain a
sustainable wood product industry in Southeast?" She said that,
ultimately, in order to tackle this issue it should be done
comprehensively and not in small pieces. The way that these
parcels are aligned the timber will most likely be exported and
will not go to small mills. She explained that there's a lot of
opportunity to create work in Southeast forests. She noted that
the Forest Service did announce that they are transitioning out
of old growth forests. She explained that the reason behind this
is that old growth forests hold important ecological values. She
said that she believes that a small old growth industry can be
maintained as well as the existing mills. This piece of
legislation will not solve this issue. She said "many of us
would prefer to work comprehensively at this."
CO-CHAIR WAGONER asked why the transition to working
comprehensively has not occurred yet. He said that this is a
very small amount of timber and is a method to save jobs that
currently exist in Alaska.
MS. CATCHALL replied that the distance of the parcel locations
needs to be analyzed. She explained that SEACC was involved with
the Kake community forest planning process in order to aid the
community in deciding what it wanted its landscape to be and how
to create jobs. She stressed that it is important to focus on a
community-by-community level, empower their voices, and continue
with the Round Table and other gatherings. She explained that
the reduction in the timber industry has been so severe that the
industry is in shock. It is difficult to then turn around and
accept a smaller and more agile business method. She said that
when she speaks with new entrepreneurs in the timber industry
such as Larry Jackson in Ketchikan, she sees them wanting to be
creative. She stressed that jobs in the woods are important for
everyone.
12:47:46 PM
FRED MORINO, representing himself, testified in support of SB
44. He said he has been involved in financing in the timber
industry since 1970. He explained that the United States Forest
Service has 27 billion board feet of harvestable old growth
timber. He noted that Alaska has not even harvested 100 million
board feet of timber yet. He said that "the state of Alaska is
the timber industry in Southeast Alaska now" and the state has
the responsibility to develop this timber for employment in
Southeast.
12:50:44 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER closed public testimony. [The bill was held in
committee.]
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Co-Chair Wagoner adjourned the meeting at 12:50 p.m.
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