Legislature(1997 - 1998)
03/23/1998 03:57 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE RESOURCES COMMITTEE
March 23, 1998
3:37 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Rick Halford, Chairman
Senator Lyda Green, Vice Chairman
Senator Bert Sharp
Senator Robin Taylor
Senator John Torgerson
Senator Georgianna Lincoln
MEMBERS ABSENT
SENATOR LOREN LEMAN
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 341
"An Act relating to agricultural land; and providing for an
effective date."
- PASSED SB 341 FROM COMMITTEE
SENATE BILL NO. 262
"An Act relating to regulation of hunting and trapping and to the
definition of sustained yield.'"
- PASSED CSSB 341(RES) FROM COMMITTEE
CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 281(CRA)
"An Act relating to general grant land entitlements for the City
and Borough of Yakutat; and providing for an effective date."
- HEARD AND HELD
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
SB 341 - No previous action to record.
SB 262 - No previous action to record.
SB 281 - See Community & Regional Affairs minutes dated 2/23/98.
See Resource Committee minutes dated 3/20/98.
WITNESS REGISTER
Ms. Janey Wineinger, Staff
Senator Lyda Green
State Capitol Bldg.
Juneau, AK 99811-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 341 for sponsor.
Ms. Mel Krogseng, Staff
Senator Robin Taylor
State Capitol Bldg.
Juneau, AK 99811-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 262 for sponsor.
Mr. Geron Bruce, Special Assistant
Department of Fish and Game
P.O. Box 25526
Juneau, AK 99802-5526
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed SB 262.
Mr. Tom Armour, Manager
City and Borough of Yakutat
P.O. Box 160
Yakutat, AK 99689
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 281.
Mr. Paul Fuhs
City and Borough of Yakutat
10652 Porter Lane
Juneau, AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 281.
Mr. Dick Mylius
Division of Land
Department of Natural Resources
3601 C Street, Ste. 1122
Anchorage, AK 99503-5947
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 281.
Mr. Steve Planchon, Executive Director
Mental Health Trust Land Office
Department of Natural Resources
3601 C Street
Anchorage, AK 99503-5935
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 281.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 98-21, SIDE A
Number 001
SB 341 - AGRICULTURAL LAND BILL FIX
CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to
order at 3:37 p.m. and announced SB 341 to be up for consideration.
MS. JANEY WINEINGER, Aide to Senator Green, sponsor, said SB 341
attempts to correct a small glitch that was created in SB 109,
Section 14(b) which listed tracts 1 -19 at Pt. Mackenzie and 21 -
30. This bill attempts to remove 30, ending it at 29. Tract 30
was assigned to the Borough through the Municipal Entitlement Act.
At this time, the Borough retains the development rights and the
State retains the agriculture rights. The key is what's fee
simple. The Revolving Loan fund later acquired the agriculture
rights in Tract 30 by foreclosure of its lien when the farmer had
secured the agriculture rights. Tract 30 is the only parcel
designated that has a split title. The Mat-Su Borough requested
this with concurrence from the State. She said no one opposes this
bill.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass SB 341 from Committee with individual
recommendations with the accompanying fiscal note. There were no
objections and it was so ordered.
SB 262 - MANAGEMENT OF HUNTING
CHAIRMAN HALFORD announced SB 262 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR TAYLOR said this is a reaction to the closure by the Board
of 236 square miles to Alaskan hunters. It basically restricts the
Department from curtailing traditional access for hunting and
trapping unless the specific needs of access is causing biological
harm to a game population in the area where the restriction is to
apply.
MS. MEL KROGSENG, Staff to Senator Taylor, said the amendment was
drafted to allow the Board of Game to maintain those controlled use
areas in existence now that they feel are necessary. Some of them
have indicated that these areas may be only for a short period of
time and may not be necessary to be maintained over time. This
would allow the Board to grandfather them if they need to be
continued and eliminate them if they don't need to be continued.
There were references in the original bill to fish and the bill
doesn't really deal with fish, just game; so fish were deleted. It
was also intended that generalized motor vehicles be included, so
that is in the amendment. The term "conservation" was changed to
"management." The bill still states that if the Department wishes
to create new controlled use areas, it must be for biological
reasons.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved to adopt the amendment to SB 262. There were
no objections and it was so ordered.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass CSSB 262(RES) from Committee with
individual recommendations.
SENATOR LINCOLN objected saying she would first like to hear from
the Department.
MR. GERON BRUCE, Department of Fish and Game, said the amendments
would not essentially affect the main testimony of the Department
on the original bill which is that controlled use areas are
designed not for biological purposes, but for allocative purposes
under the Board's authority to provide preferences among beneficial
uses. That is what this tool is being used for. With the
exception of a few areas, they have been well received by the
public.
SENATOR SHARP asked if current areas would be grandfathered in.
SENATOR TAYLOR answered, "Yes."
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if they are taking out all reference to
fish except in the sustained yield definition and asked if that's
the intent.
MS. KROGSENG said they intentionally left the reference to fish for
sustained yield, because this definition is under general
definitions, not referring to just this section of the bill.
There were no further objections and the bill moved from Committee
with individual recommendations.
SB 28 - UNINCORP. COMMUNITY MATCHING GRANTS
CHAIRMAN HALFORD announced SB 281 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR MACKIE said he represents the City of Yakutat and SB 281
was introduced to complete the formation of the Yakutat Borough and
the land entitlements that the State grants to support local
government. Initially, the land entitlement for the new borough by
the formula of 10 percent of "vacant, unappropriated, and
unreserved" (VUU) State lands was a mere 138 acres.
The City and Borough of Yakutat subsequently petitioned the Local
Boundary Commission to reclaim much of the area on its Northern
border. In a reversal of its earlier decision, the Local Boundary
Commission approved the annexation which contains a substantial
amount of State "VUU" lands. It is estimated that if the annexed
areas had been included for the original borough formation, the
municipal land entitlement would amount to 33,000 acres.
It has been a long established policy for the State to assist the
formation and operation of the local governments with generous
grants of State land. SB 281 corrects the defects in the borough
formation process that resulted in such a small land entitlement
for the City and Borough of Yakutat by increasing its entitlement
to 21,500 acres. At this point, the Community and Regional Affairs
Committee, which he chairs, reduced the amount from 30,000 acres.
The bill also gives additional authority to the Director of the
Division of Lands in the Department of Natural Resources to
condition and restrict any of the municipality's selections made
under this increased grant.
The City and Borough of Yakutat has been extremely accommodating in
terms of working with all the agencies, the State, the University
of Alaska, DNR, DCRA, and the Mental Health Trust to try to come up
with a bill that would be non-controversial.
Number 227
SENATOR TAYLOR said the backup material indicates this legislation
addresses another matter, because it says, "much of the State land
in the area has been reclassified under the Yakutaga Area Plan, it
will be necessary for DNR to relocate and reclassify acreage
available for conveyance to the Borough." He asked why they didn't
convey to Yakutat a contiguous portion of land, in essence,
surrounding their community.
SENATOR MACKIE said he would like another person who is more
familiar with the issue to answer that. He knew there were a
number of concerns from the University in terms of their ability to
have development on University lands.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if these lands didn't include University
lands.
SENATOR MACKIE responded that Mr. Armour would answer that a little
later.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what the population of the Yakutat Borough
was.
SENATOR MACKIE replied 850 people.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if they had any plans to convey this land to
private owners or would it be held by the community.
MR. TOM ARMOUR, Manager, City and Borough of Yakutat, said the
people of Yakutat have been fighting to form a borough for six
years. This bill granting their municipal entitlement is a final
step in the legislative process and he asked for their support of
it. They have worked closely with all the affected parties for the
past five months including Chugach Corporation, University, DNR,
ADF&G, and the Mental Health Trust. As part of their negotiations,
they reduced their entitlement from 30,000 to 21,500 acres and have
agreed to work out habitat conditions with ADF&G so they can obtain
title to lands with critical habitat issues. As a result, all of
the parties are in support of this bill with the exception of the
Mental Health Trust who wants veto power over a 40-acre parcel
currently used as a log sort yard, which they couldn't accept.
They offered the Mental Health Trust the same deal as the
University, which doesn't charge for using the property during the
term of their current State land lease, and an offer to delay
nominating that parcel until they are finished with their round of
logging (approximately eight years). DNR will have the final
decision and they may well keep that property for itself.
SENATOR TAYLOR said he was concerned with what some of the land
classifications were and asked to see them on a map.
MR. ARMOUR said he didn't have it with him, but it would be readily
available.
MR. PAUL FUHS, City of Yakutat, said this land is highly classified
and managed. There were a lot of lawsuits that were filed against
the University for their logging. Mental Health was involved. It
is part of an out-of-court settlement. If you change around the
classifications, then all the bets are off and the lawsuits are
back on. These were very delicate negotiations and they weren't
able to identify 30,000 acres in the municipality that wouldn't
have triggered so many changes in land classification that would
have upset the whole apple cart. That's why they agreed to 21,500
acres. A lot of the land is directly contiguous to Yakutat; the
other land is around the industrial area where the University and
Mental Health are doing their logging which is a potential future
port site.
He explained that some lands are classified in a way that a
municipality would never get them, like wildlife refuges. The ones
that are classified as habitat, forestry, or industrial use areas
are those areas that are available for selection. Most
municipalities do not know which parcels they would go after; they
would just go after a straight 10 percent. This area is so highly
classified and managed, that they know exactly which parcels they
can and can't go after. That's how they zeroed in on the 21,500
without upsetting all the other land classifications in the area.
SENATOR TAYLOR said it seems to him that there is an appropriation
of State lands that's taking place through the classification
purpose, especially when that classification is used in a court
settlement. It seems like a couple of parties got together, not
elected by anyone, and decided to settle a case. They are being
precluded in the Legislature from conveying it to the Borough and
they are precluded from doing any other management technique on
that property other than that which has been decided by the
litigation. It seems like they are going at this backwards. The
Legislature appropriates the resources and wealth of this State,
not the Cleary case.
Number 310
SENATOR MACKIE explained that all the City of Yakutat has is 138
acres. Everyone involved with this bill wanted to come up with a
bill that wasn't controversial and tried to identify lands that
would be noncontroversial and made sense for them to nominate. All
this bill does is allow up to that amount to happen. It would
allow the City and Borough of Yakutat to nominate certain parcels
of land within that entitlement and DNR would have to approve the
nomination and once that happened the City and Borough would have
to pay for the survey and the conveyance. There would be no fiscal
impact to the State.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what the basis was for the original 138
acres.
MR. FUHS explained that it was 10 percent of the vacant
unappropriated land and the reason there wasn't much land is
because it was almost all federal and native corporation land
around the municipality. There was very little State land around
the original borough boundaries. In the annexed area, there's a
lot of State land which now allows Yakutat to seek its entitlement.
SENATOR MACKIE said the annexation has occurred since that original
allotment.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked how many people lived in the annexed area.
MR. ARMOUR explained that the small amount of permanent non-logging
residents at the logging camps fluctuates with the market. One of
the camps has 35 people. He knows of only six permanent people.
SENATOR MACKIE said the reason the 33,000 acres was the original
amount is because if the area that has recently been annexed was
included in the original formation, they would have been entitled
to 33,000 acres under the formula all the other municipalities were
allowed land under. Because of all the different land
classifications and habitat area, it was reduced by one third to
21,500.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD countered that those allocations were based on
that particular snap-shot in time. If they ended up with 21,000
acres for a population of 850 people, they would have far more
acreage in a governmental entity that's pretty far away. The Mat-
Su Borough has become so big and so diverse, that it has paralyzed
itself by its own diversity. Its extremities do not want what its
core does want and it won't pay for what its core wants. They
continuously argue back and forth.
SENATOR MACKIE asked what would be the purpose of having a borough
without land entitlement that actually made sense. There are so
many things within the Yakutat boundaries that are not going to be
allowed for land development as it is...
MR. FUHS responded they went through this with Chugach Corporation
that also has logging in the area; and they have a differential
mill rate. Yakutat does not want to extend services to people who
don't want them. There is a satellite school for the logging camp
area with a minimal mill rate.
SENATOR SHARP asked how recent annexing makes more land available
closer to Yakutat.
MR. FUHS replied that 1,300 acres of the land is right around
Yakutat. Ten percent of 1,380 acres is 138 acres - the original
entitlement. With this legislation, they can go back and get the
1,300 acres that's right around Yakutat. Under the original
entitlement they couldn't even get that.
SENATOR SHARP asked where the Denali Borough was, referring to some
materials in his packet.
MR. FUHS responded it was on a list of boroughs that required
legislative approval for property, that had done an annexation or
some change. Otherwise it would automatically be under the
formula.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if other boroughs have a land entitlement.
MR. FUHS answered yes, but they got it under the automatic borough
formation that did not require legislative approval.
SENATOR TAYLOR said he is concerned that the people of Yakutat can
afford to pay for the surveying and other things. He thought they
should have the 33,000 acres closest to Yakutat.
SENATOR GREEN asked for an explanation of the log sort yard.
MR. ARMOUR explained that there are two operations going on in the
annexed area right now. Some of it is on Mental Health Trust land;
some is on University land. The log sort yard is on the west side
of the Icy Bay area where the various contractors bring their logs
for shipping. The sort yard is under a State lease or use permit
of some sort.
SENATOR GREEN asked if it was specifically for logs.
MR. ARMOUR answered that he didn't think the permit or lease was
specifically for a sort yard; he thought it was to the contractor.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked when they approve a selection that would
otherwise be disapproved, are they referring to land that would be
disapproved because it doesn't meet the qualification of vacant,
unappropriated, or unreserved.
MR. FUHS replied that they are areas that, unless there were some
conditions placed on it in terms of protecting the habitat, the
ADF&G would object completely to the property being turned over to
the municipality. There are some areas that the municipality is
very interested in that they are willing to accept those conditions
on, because they are, in fact, critical spawning habitat areas and
Yakutat is a fishing dependent community. They don't have a
problem with those provisions.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if the Department couldn't turn down a land
selection based upon whether it meets the criteria of not being
vacant, unappropriated, or unreserved, what is their basis for
turning it down.
MR. FUHS replied that their basis is that they would say unless
they can have those provisions in there, the municipality might
decide to do something else with it and put it to a use the
Department would consider to be in conflict with the habitat
values.
SENATOR TORGERSON said, "That's B.S." that there are buffer zones.
MR. FUHS said one of the things they agreed to was the Forest
Practices Act.
SENATOR TORGERSON said he didn't think ADF&G had any authority to
say they couldn't select certain lands.
MR. FUHS said, while they identify strongly with his statements and
Senator Taylor's, the fact is that this area is the political
equivalent to West Beirut. They are trying to navigate through it
so the municipality can get its lands without taking the whole
thing apart.
SENATOR TORGERSON said he wanted to insert that ADF&G may not
withhold approval, since they don't really have approval of it
anyway.
Number 544
MR. DICK MYLIUS, Division of Land, said there is only about 8,000
acres in the City and Borough of Yakutat that are classified into
vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved. Most of that is mountain
tops with the exception of 2,000 acres around the town that is
settlement land. Most of the land is not classified so that they
could get it.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if that meant that under existing law, now
that they have a larger pool of vacant, unappropriated, unreserved
land, they could go back and get 10 percent of that 8,000 acres.
MR. MYLIUS answered that the law doesn't allow for any increase in
entitlement through annexation. On an existing formula, they get
no additional entitlement. If they were to add this land to the
Borough today, their entitlement would be reduced to 10 percent of
the 8,700 acres. The 30,000 acres came from language before the
Yakataga area plan, which set aside most of the land as a forestry
or wildlife designation, both of which are not normally conveyable.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said the existing system does not allow any
adjustment based on annexation. So if you annex an area that's
twice as large to serve, you don't increase your entitlement at
all.
MR. MYLIUS answered that was correct; AS29.65 deals with municipal
entitlements grants to new municipalities.
SENATOR MAKCIE said that is why they need that amount of
entitlement in order to get through the formula. He said the other
boroughs on the list are in the same kind of situation needing
legislative approval. Otherwise it would automatic.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he thought Senator Mackie's number was high,
but their current number is very low. Ten percent of 8,000 acres
and the 1,300 currently in the Yakutat area don't bother him.
However, getting a huge annexation that was definitely a political
issue and then adding a large entitlement to a very small
population base is different. There are other areas that might
feel like they in proportion didn't do as well.
SENATOR MACKIE said the legislature had an opportunity to deny the
annexation, which they didn't do. Some at this table have
encouraged areas to incorporate into boroughs and that has been
done, but if the legislature doesn't give them the land to be able
to manage and utilize as a municipality, what purpose is it to
throw a line around it and say they only have 138 acres to deal
with everything? He questioned why that would be too much to ask
and the financial reality that they would ever nominate most of
that land, let alone survey and pay for it, is fairly slim to begin
with. The reason for the large number is to take advantage of the
formula the way it's structured to get to the core area that is
adjacent to Yakutat that they would have immediate use for. It has
to have that entitlement to get to that particular area. They
estimated it would cost $20 million to survey that land which would
never happen in our lifetimes.
SENATOR MACKIE said he did not want to invite criticism over land
that in reality wasn't going to be able to be used for anything
other than what it's classified as. He didn't know of anyone who
was opposed to this because of all the work that was done to
address everyone's concerns. He thought this was a good example of
how to get consensus on something and he was concerned with
arbitrarily reducing the amount without having some thought and
justification.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked when DNR adopts area use plans, is all the
land considered to be vacant, unappropriated, or unreserved or is
it identified in the plan.
MR. MYLIUS answered the plan determines whether it's vacant,
unappropriated, or unreserved or not. If it's classified into
settlement, public recreation, or agriculture, it's considered
vacant, unappropriated, or unreserved and, therefore, available
both to calculate the entitlement or to be conveyable to the
borough. If it's classified forestry, wildlife habitat, minerals,
oil and gas, or a few other lesser classifications, it's not
conveyable.
Number 578
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if the language saying the director
determines what stipulations, conditions, or covenants would be
what is already existing on that land.
MR. MYLIUS answered it would likely be stipulations that were in
the area plan like specific set-backs or buffers, like the timber
ADF&G wanted along the shoreline for moose and bears. If that
stipulation wasn't in there, they would oppose conveying that
particular tract to the borough.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if their intent was that the stipulations,
conditions, and covenants would be the same that are in the area
plan and they wouldn't be more stringent.
MR. MYLIUS answered that they would definitely not be more
stringent.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if there would be new ones.
MR. MYLIUS answered not unless the City and Borough would want
them. Division of Land would not propose any.
SENATOR TORGERSON said that helped a little. He asked how many
acres they are trying for.
MR. FUHS said it would take a few years, like any municipality, to
pay for the surveying, but this says Yakutat would get up to 21,500
acres. His guess is that the maximum they could get is 20,000
acres. Mr. Mylius thought the same.
SENATOR TORGERSON noted that the land has to be nominated before
October 1, 1999, but the conveyance isn't done until the surveying
is done and asked if that was correct.
MR. FUHS said that is correct and part of what they are looking at
is that the Municipality wants to make some revenue from these
properties to help pay for schools. Yakutat is up against the 35
percent cap right now. It's well managed and doing its part to
pull its own weight and he hoped they would consider that.
SENATOR TAYLOR said it seems the VUU lands would not include
timbered lands under this classification. He asked if the lands
they are getting are timbered.
MR. FUHS replied that it would be a reclassification of lands
primarily identified as habitat now, with some conditions on it.
Yakutat's potential uses for that would be recreational or
commercial lodges. Part of the negotiations with the University
was a hut-to-hut trail system, hiking, and some recreation cabins,
and tourist development.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if they were not getting any of the timber
lands in that area.
MR. FUHS said that was correct, all of those were taken by the
University, Mental Health, and Kedgwick Corp. There are no
timbered lands involved here.
TAPE 98-21, SIDE B
MR. STEVE PLANCHON, Executive Director, Alaska Mental Health Trust
Office, said the Trust Authority supports this bill. However, they
have one concern with the stated intention of the borough to select
a specific tract on the West Icy Cape that is critical, and will
continue to be critical, to the on-going operations of trust lands
immediately adjacent to the tract. The tract is general State land
and the Trust Authority had selected it, but was told in no
uncertain terms that that land would stay in general state
ownership because of the statewide interest that the tracts served.
Both the University and Mental Health Trust depend upon this tract
and its current status to enable them to get supplies onto shore
and to get timber off of the shore. It is the only place you can
do that. They generate over 50 percent of Trust natural resource
revenues off of this land - from a five year timber contract they
have in place and another timber contract after that. They have an
excellent working relationship with the DNR and so does the
University. Their concern is that Borough ownership might
unnecessarily complicate the ongoing operations there because of
the relatively small area available for connecting operations and
having new parties coming in who might have different objectives
for long term management that might not be compatible with timber
resource management.
However, that's not the case of their current relationship with the
Borough with whom they have an excellent working relationship. The
Trust was also ready to select lands, under terms of the
settlement, in and around the City of Yakutat, but when they found
that the City and Borough of Yakutat was intending to find lands
for the good purposes of local government, they took those lands
out of their selection pool, believing strongly in having a good
relationship with local government.
He recommended an agreement between the Mental Health Trust, the
University of Alaska, and the Borough that would essentially allow
for the selection of this tract to be made and then be put in a
pending status, because there may be a good reason for local
government to own those lands. They just don't know what that
reason is today and don't know what the outcome of that would be.
Unfortunately, the Borough considered that to be veto power on the
part of the University or the Trust. At this time, they seek the
legislature's advice.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if that tract was pending now.
MR. PLANCHON explained that the selection is still pending, but
basically DNR has said it's not in the best interests of the State
to allow the Trust to take title to that parcel at this time.
SENATOR TORGERSON said he couldn't see why they were afraid of the
City and Borough getting this parcel other than a fee they might
charge for logs.
MR. PLANCHON said that was a concern. Because the Trust and
University purposes are statewide interests, DNR does not charge
fees to cross the land or use it. If a local government takes
property ownership of the parcel, they could charge fees (which
they have been told would be reasonable) or they could dispose of
the land to a private party. They are concerned about those
uncertainties. He is trying to look out for the Trust's interest.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if this is one of the pieces that would
have a covenant stipulation on it if it was transferred to the
Borough.
MR. FUHS said it is industrial; there are no fish and game concerns
on this property.
Number 470
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if this was the only place to get ashore.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked if Mr. Planchon understood that the State
would convey the land to the City and Borough of Yakutat.
MR. PLANCHON replied that he thought they would decide it would
stay in State ownership.
SENATOR MACKIE said this tract was good commercial land that is the
kind of land a municipality ought to be able to nominate.
MR. JIM BRENAN, Attorney, City and Borough of Yakutat, responded
that Yakutat has assured the Mental Health Trust and University
that their existing right-of-way permit, which runs for 25 years,
would not be disrupted by operation of law under the Municipal
Entitlements Act. All Yakutat is seeking is the opportunity to
nominate this land for conveyance at which point it would be up to
the State to decide.
In response to Senator Torgerson's question about what authority
DNR has here, they have the authority to make a best interest
determination whether or not to award a conveyance. Their
authority to withhold a conveyance has been upheld by the Alaska
Supreme Court. Yakutat is not seeking conveyance of the land
underlying the current University of Alaska harvest.
The question has been raised about the per capita award and he said
the Lincoln Peninsula Borough was awarded 125,000 acres through a
statute just like this in the 1994 legislative session which works
out to more per capita. The Denali Borough was awarded 49,700
acres under the standard 10 percent VUU entitlement. He thought
what could occur with the sort yard a decade or two down the line
can be resolved by DNR at that time when it rules on Yakutat's
conveyance requests. The University harvest will be done in 18
years; the Mental Health Trust current harvest will be done in 10.
What the situation is 10 years from now can best be evaluated by
the agency at that time. All they want now is legislative
authorization to pursue conveyance of lands.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD thanked everyone for the testimony and adjourned
the meeting at 4:45 p.m.
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