HJR 54: Relating to urging the exclusion of national forests in Alaska from President Clinton's proposal for withdrawal of roadless areas in the national forest system.
00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 54 01 Relating to urging the exclusion of national forests in Alaska from President 02 Clinton's proposal for withdrawal of roadless areas in the national forest system. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS the forest products industry has been and continues to be an important 05 economic sector in Alaska that contributes significant employment income to the economy of 06 the state, and, through purchases of timber from National Forest System lands, contributes 07 significant revenue to local communities through the 25 percent revenue sharing provisions 08 of federal law; and 09 WHEREAS application of President Clinton's proposed roadless policy to the Tongass 10 and Chugach National Forests would designate significant additional acreage as administrative, 11 de facto wilderness areas within Alaska; and 12 WHEREAS application of the President's proposed roadless policy in Alaska would 13 be contrary to sec. 708(b)(4), Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), 14 which specifically prohibits another roadless area review and evaluation (RARE) on national
01 forest lands in Alaska for the purpose of setting aside commercial forest land as wilderness; 02 and 03 WHEREAS application of the President's proposed roadless policy in Alaska would 04 be contrary to sec. 1326(a) of ANILCA, which prohibits the withdrawal of more than 5,000 05 acres, in the aggregate, of public lands within Alaska without the consent of the Congress; and 06 WHEREAS application of the President's proposed roadless policy in Alaska would 07 be contrary to sec. 1326(b) of ANILCA, which expressly prohibits studies of public lands for 08 the purpose of considering the establishment of new conservation system units, recreation 09 areas, national conservation areas, or for related or similar purposes; and 10 WHEREAS the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990 and other Congressional and 11 administrative actions have withdrawn more than 90 percent of the Tongass National Forest 12 from availability for timber harvest and other resource development opportunities; and 13 WHEREAS the 1997 and 1999 revisions of the Tongass Land Management Plan 14 (TLMP) further reduced the available commercial forest lands in the Tongass to 576,000 acres 15 out of nearly 6,000,000 suitable acres across the forest; and 16 WHEREAS the available commercial forest lands remaining after the 1999 TLMP 17 amendments are insufficient to satisfy the raw material needs of Southeast Alaska's forest 18 products manufacturing industry given, the plan's maximum annual economic offering level 19 of 153,000,000 board feet; and 20 WHEREAS, should the President's roadless policy be applied to the Tongass, it would 21 further reduce the available commercial forest lands in the Tongass to less than half the 22 currently available acreage and could reduce the maximum annual offering level to as low as 23 30,000,000 board feet; and 24 WHEREAS application of the President's proposed roadless policy to the Tongass, 25 together with Under Secretary Lyons' 1999 unilateral TLMP amendment, would nullify the 26 results of the United States Forest Service's 1986-1997 planning process in the Tongass, which 27 cost the taxpayers more than $13,000,000; and 28 WHEREAS application of the President's proposed roadless policy to the Tongass, 29 together with Under Secretary Lyons' 1999 unilateral TLMP amendment, would further 30 destabilize the already unstable timber-based economy of Southeast Alaska by forcing the 31 closure of most of the remaining forest products manufacturing facilities, resulting in loss of
01 employment and associated negative socioeconomic impacts within timber-dependent 02 communities and the Southeast Alaska region; and 03 WHEREAS the Chugach National Forest has spent three years and several million 04 dollars conducting a revision to its land management plan and is within a few months of 05 issuing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for that plan; and 06 WHEREAS a wide range of interests from the Alaska public has been involved in the 07 Chugach land management planning process, working to develop a range of plan alternatives 08 that respond to the public's interests, needs, and concerns, and the President's roadless policy 09 would render that involvement and expense pointless and undermine public confidence in the 10 planning process; and 11 WHEREAS the public, through the Chugach Land Management Plan revision scoping 12 process, has expressed deep concern that the approximately 130,000 acres of the Chugach 13 National Forest suffering from spruce bark beetle damage must be managed for the restoration 14 of a green, healthy forest, and the application of the President's roadless policy will prevent 15 the access required by land managers to accomplish that restoration work; and 16 WHEREAS application of the President's roadless policy will render it virtually 17 impossible for inholders and adjacent landowners, particularly families and small business 18 owners, to obtain the access to their property that was promised them in ANILCA; 19 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature opposes any application of 20 President Clinton's proposed roadless policy to national forests in Alaska and urges the 21 President to obey the requirements of ANILCA and to respect the National Forest 22 Management Act planning process by refraining from including the Tongass and Chugach 23 National Forests in the proposed policy; and be it 24 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports the efforts of 25 Governor Tony Knowles, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski, and U.S. 26 Congressman Don Young in opposing the application to Alaska of the President's proposed 27 roadless policy and urges them to maintain their objections and to continue to press for the 28 exclusion of Alaska's forests; and be it 29 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to 30 determine what legal action may be available under ANILCA to enjoin the application of the 31 roadless policy to Alaska and to file the proper legal action when this issue becomes ripe if
01 the President elects to apply the policy to Alaska. 02 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the 03 United States; the Honorable Dan Glickman, United States Secretary of Agriculture; Mike 04 Dombeck, Chief of the United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture; 05 and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and 06 the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in 07 Congress.