00SENATE CS FOR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 60(RES) am S                                                                 
01 Opposing the designation of millions of acres of Alaska as critical habitat for the                                     
02 Spectacled Eider and the Steller's Eider.                                                                               
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                              
04  WHEREAS the United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Spectacled Eider                                      
05 as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in May 1993; and                                         
06  WHEREAS the United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Steller's Eider as                                    
07 a threatened species under the ESA in June 1997; and                                                                    
08  WHEREAS, in response to a lawsuit, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service                                       
09 published proposed regulations on March 13 and February 8, 2000, to designate large marine                              
10 and terrestrial areas of Alaska as critical habitat for both species; and                                               
11  WHEREAS a lawsuit does not constitute "new information" for purposes of                                              
12 determining whether a critical habitat designation is warranted, and the United States Fish and                         
13 Wildlife Service has not presented any other new information that justifies making a critical                           
14 habitat designation; and                                                                                                

01  WHEREAS the proposed regulations would designate over 50,000,000 marine and                                          
02 terrestrial acres, as well as numerous miles of coastline between Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet,                           
03 as critical habitat for the Spectacled Eider and the Steller's Eider; and                                               
04  WHEREAS the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has not adequately justified                                     
05 the need for the overly expansive designations of critical habitat for both species; and                                
06  WHEREAS up to 65 percent of the area designated as critical breeding habitat on the                                  
07 Y-K Delta is already within federal wildlife refuges; and                                                               
08  WHEREAS the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is purposely distorting the                                      
09 original intent of the ESA to limit critical habitat areas to those areas most crucial to the                           
10 survival of endangered and threatened species rather than to designate overly broad, expansive,                         
11 and unjustified areas where the species may not even exist as critical habitat; and                                     
12  WHEREAS the overly broad identification of vast marine and terrestrial areas as                                      
13 critical habitat for endangered or threatened species could have an unnecessary negative                                
14 economic effect on reasonable and critically needed programs to develop resources of Alaska;                            
15 and                                                                                                                     
16  WHEREAS the overly broad identification of large expanses of marine areas as                                         
17 critical habitat could have an unnecessary negative effect on important subsistence and                                 
18 commercial fishing activities in rural Alaska;                                                                          
19  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature strongly opposes the designation                                    
20 of overly large areas of Alaska as critical habitat for the Spectacled Eider and the Steller's                          
21 Eider; and be it                                                                                                        
22  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges Governor Tony                                               
23 Knowles to pursue legal action against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service if the                               
24 agency continues with the final adoption of regulations to designate critical habitat for the                           
25 Spectacled Eider and the Steller's Eider; and be it                                                                     
26  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the members of the                                          
27 Alaska delegation in Congress to assist by whatever means available to block the adoption of                            
28 final regulations establishing critical habitat areas for the Spectacled Eider and the Steller's                        
29 Eider; and be it                                                                                                        
30  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States                                           
31 Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt final regulations that do not designate new critical habitat                         

01 areas for the Spectacled Eider and the Steller's Eider in Alaska; and be it                                             
02  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the U.S. Fish and                                           
03 Wildlife Service to consider negotiating reasonable purchases of private property within                                
04 proposed Critical Habitat on the Y-K Delta rather than preclude responsible economic uses                               
05 of these lands through agency regulatory actions.                                                                       
06  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to Jamie Rappaport Clark, Director, Fish and                                 
07 Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the                             
08 Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S.                                             
09 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.