02/21/2012 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES

             HB 144-REPORT ON FISHING STREAM ACCESS                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
4:57:27 PM                                                                                                                    
CO-CHAIR  WAGONER announced  HB 144  to be  up for  consideration                                                               
[CSHB 144(RES), 27-LS0220\I, was before the committee].                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN moved to bring  HB 144 before this committee for                                                               
purposes of discussion.                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR WAGONER objected for discussion purposes.                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
4:58:25 PM                                                                                                                    
REPRESENTATIVE  LES  GARA,  sponsor  of HB  144,  testified  that                                                               
people  have   lost  their  public  access   to  fishing  streams                                                               
throughout  the  country.  For instance,  people  can  no  longer                                                               
access  180  miles of  the  Missouri  River  and in  Wyoming  and                                                               
Montana, ranchers  and movie stars  are famous for being  able to                                                               
close off fishing streams' access  to people. Alaskans are lucky,                                                               
but we're  slowly losing fishing stream  access, especially along                                                               
the  road  system where  roughly  half  of  the Salcha  River  in                                                               
Fairbanks  is  thus  endangered,  along with  over  one  mile  of                                                               
Montana Creek  and Willow Creek in  the Valley and over  one mile                                                               
of the Anchor River on the Kenai Peninsula.                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE GARA  said when the  state owns the land  there is                                                               
access in  the smaller rivers where  one can wade up  to the high                                                               
water mark, but other big  rivers are mostly in wilderness status                                                               
(nobody  has  wanted to  develop  them)  and privately  owned  by                                                               
Native corporations  and other private  property owners.  And one                                                               
day they  will be developed, which  is fine. That is  the private                                                               
property  owners'  right.  But  HB 144  asks  the  Department  of                                                               
Natural Resources  (DNR) and  the Alaska  Department of  Fish and                                                               
Game (ADF&G) to  say what they have done to  maintain and protect                                                               
public access in the prior year  and what their plans are for the                                                               
next year. The  goal is to remind  them that they have  a duty to                                                               
promote and maintain public access, and  if we are going to start                                                               
to lose it, it's much cheaper  for the state to try and negotiate                                                               
a  voluntary  easement  purchase  before the  land  is  developed                                                               
rather than after.  That is the problem in  Missouri, Wyoming and                                                               
Montana. Once the land has been  developed, you can only buy tiny                                                               
parcels back.  In Alaska, before  the landowners decide  they are                                                               
going to  do something with the  land, it would be  smart for the                                                               
state to  at least  approach the  landowner, and  the legislature                                                               
could appropriate  whatever funds  it thought  appropriate, about                                                               
the public access.  If they say yes, easements are  wanted to the                                                               
river and  along it and in  places where the rivers  are too deep                                                               
to  wade. He  said this  is a  simple bill  and it  maintains the                                                               
state's heritage  of sport and  other sorts of fishing  and helps                                                               
in subsistence fishing, too.                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
5:02:06 PM                                                                                                                    
With  time being  too short  for a  lot of  testimony, he  listed                                                               
letters  of support  from  the Alaska  Fly  Fishers, the  Outdoor                                                               
Council, the  Kenai River Sportfishing Association,  and a number                                                               
of other individuals.                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR STEDMAN  said this  request is for  an annual  report and                                                               
that seemed like a  lot of work and asked if  it could done every                                                               
four or five years.                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE  GARA replied  that the  department already  knows                                                               
where public  access is  being lost and  the report  won't change                                                               
much from  year to year  unless new access has  been successfully                                                               
accumulated.  It  takes a  long  time  to  negotiate a  piece  of                                                               
easement  and having  an annual  requirement will  force them  to                                                               
think it through every year.                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
5:04:18 PM                                                                                                                    
ED FOGELS,  Deputy Commissioner, Department of  Natural Resources                                                               
(DNR),  said  the  conservation  of   public  access  is  a  very                                                               
important  part  of  DNR's  obligation  and  they  take  it  very                                                               
seriously. Whenever  they sell land,  they make sure  to conserve                                                               
access to public waters, whether  they are streams or lakes; also                                                               
when they convey land out  of state ownership, to municipalities,                                                               
for instance, they  retain easements for public  access to public                                                               
water  bodies.  This  bill wouldn't  significantly  affect  their                                                               
workflow  or  workload  and  it would  give  the  legislature  an                                                               
accounting of what  they had accomplished over the  year and what                                                               
they hope to accomplish for the following year.                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR WAGONER closed the public hearing.                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN moved to bring  CSHB 144(RES), version I, before                                                               
the  committee.  There  were   no  objections;  Co-Chair  Wagoner                                                               
removed his objection.                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR  WIELECHOWSKI   moved  to   report  CSHB   144(RES)  from                                                               
committee  with individual  recommendations  and attached  fiscal                                                               
note(s). There were no objections and it was so ordered.