Legislature(2001 - 2002)
02/09/2001 03:43 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HJR 6-ROADLESS POLICY
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON announced HJR 6 to be up for consideration.
Number 1700
REPRESENTATIVE PEGGY WILSON, sponsor, said HJR 6 opposes the
inclusion of Alaska's Tongass and Chugach National Forests in the
Roadless Policy and wants to overturn it. The Tongass and the
Chugach Land Management Plans have cost many millions of dollars.
The Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) has already been in effect
for over 11 years costing $13 million and countless hours. The
Chugach took 3 years. They were led to believe the national forests
in Alaska wouldn't be included in this program.
MS. RACHEL MORELAND, Alaska Forest Association, said they strongly
supported HJR 6.
MR. DICK COOSE, Ketchikan resident, said he has lived in Southeast
Alaska for 20 years and has hunted and fished on the Tongass and
the roads and clear cuts are very useful for those activities. He
is retired from the Forest Service after 34 years of service. He
assured them that the Tongass was not as bad off as the
preservationists put it.
MR. JOE SEBASTIAN, Prince of Wales Island, said that is the most
heavily, densely roaded space anywhere in Alaska outside of
downtown Anchorage. He strongly supported the Roadless Policy and
the inclusion of the Tongass and the Chugach in it. He also defends
the concepts of the Tongass Land Management Plan. "The Roadless
Policy embarks on a new era and a new moral consciousness
concerning natural tracts of land still left to us and calls a halt
to industrial exploitation of nature."
MS. CORRIE BOSMAN, Sitka, opposed HJR 6 and supported the
application of the Roadless Policy to the Tongass and the Chugach
National Forests. She didn't think the legislature understood the
policy after speaking with Representative Wilson who, she thought,
was very misinformed. She thought the policy was a complete ban on
any new road construction and that's not true. "This policy only
applies to areas that are currently inventoried as roadless. There
will still be road construction permitted outside of those areas in
both the Tongass and the Chugach." She said that people in Sitka
and other communities in southeast Alaska who participated in the
Management Plan process overwhelmingly showed support for this
application to the Tongass. She said, "I am appalled at the way
both Governor Knowles and the Forest Service has been handling
this. This was lawfully signed into law. It has been disregarded.
These are federal lands. They need to be managed on behalf of
people here in Alaska, but also all the other people throughout the
nation that these lands belong to."
MR. DON MUELLER, Manager, Old Harbor Books, Sitka, said he strongly
supported including Alaska in the National Roadless Policy. He
thought it was wise for the long-term economics of Southeast
Alaska.
Number 2400
MR. MARK RORICK, Sierra Club, said he lived in Juneau for 30 years
and didn't think he could change their minds within this forum, but
he said there had been much misinformation about the Roadless Area
Conservation Rule. He gave an example of the Cholmondeley [east
Prince of Wales Island] timber sale, a 35 million board feet timber
sale in the Mackenzie roadless area on Prince of Wales Island.
Since the EIS came out before the rule, the sale went forward. "It
targets the best low elevation, high volume, old growth stands. The
sale units followed stream valleys up three of the areas most
productive water sheds and constructs 23 miles of road and crosses
the stream 63 times. Many of the road segments are steep and prone
to land slides. The drinking water supplies of the residents of
Sunny Cove, Clover Bay, and Saltree Cove are jeopardized. Two lodge
businesses that contribute more than $2 million per year to the
Ketchikan economy are being put at risk."
TAPE 10, SIDE B
MR. RORICK said, "With this sale, the Forest Service has ignored
the recommendations of the interagency biologists when establishing
the old growth reserves called for by the forest plan[TLMP] and
opted for getting the maximum ASQ out at the expense of the areas
wildlife."
MR. JAN KONIGSBERG, Alaska Salmonid Biodiversity Program of Trout
Unlimited, opposed HJR 6. He said that Trout Unlimited supported
the roadless conservation policy. He didn't want to talk them out
of the current resolution so much as to oppose its current
language. He suggested it be amended in favor of some balance with
respect to the system that is already roaded in the National
Forest, particularly in the Tongass.
MR. KONIGSBERG said he thought it was the state's responsibility in
terms of salmon production to ensure there is good fish habitat.
There has been more than 20 years of recognition in the Tongass, in
particular, that there is a fish passage problem with the roads and
culverts. After more than 40 years of industrial logging, there has
been some reduction in fish production. That should really be
addressed first. "Support of litigation for new roads seems to me
to be a bit one-sided unless there is an equal demand to first fix
the old roads. It makes good sense. It's good housekeeping."
MR. KONIGSBERG had draft language he had presented to the committee
on this issue.
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON thanked him, but said that he is not in favor of
amending this resolution to talk about something other than what
it was designed for. He would support a resolution that told the
feds "to clean up their act on areas that you have identified of
culverts not letting the fish through and other things. That's just
good sound business practice."
MR. PAT VEESART, Executive Director, Sitka Conservation Society,
said he was very involved in organizing to build public support for
the Roadless Policy. He has had the opportunity of talking to
hundreds and hundreds of Alaskans and thousands of visitors to
Alaska about the Roadless Policy and was overwhelmed by the level
of public support for it. The committee is being asked to pass a
resolution that is against the public will he said. The Roadless
Administrative Rulemaking process was a highly publicized, very
public process that was open to everybody. It was nation-wide with
617 hearings with 39,000 Americans attending those hearings; 1.6
million Americans commented on it. Over a million of those people
favored the rule and favored inclusion of the Tongass. It was the
largest public process in the USDA history.
After 17 hearings in Alaska, 62 percent of the people who spoke
favored the policy, 75 percent in Southeast Alaska's four largest
cities favored the policy. Local forest planning is always subject
to change in the national policy that is brought about by a change
in public attitude about how our national forests are managed.
"This process was exemplary and it was open to everyone…It is
exactly how policy should be made in a democracy."
MS. KATYA KIRSCH, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska Conservation
Council (SEACC), said she has lived in the region for 25 years and
has seen a lot of clear cutting. In the last decade, she has seen a
much more diverse economy, including a huge growth in tourism,
recreation industries, high businesses, fishing, and a lot more.
She said, "It's time to stop looking backward to recreate the
economy that chews our landscape for the gain of just one industry.
Our region's largest industries depend on a healthy Tongass
National Forest. While employment in the timber industry has been
declining, there have been increases in tourism, recreation,
construction, health care, and other parts of the economy….This
decision is not about closing down any of the nearly 5,000 miles of
road that currently exist on the Tongass. It is about managing
those valuable wild lands for multiple use that are now roadless
for purposes such as hunting, fishing, subsistence, recreation, and
tourism."
MS. KIRSCH commented that 50 percent of the timber from the Chumley
sale is going out as round logs, red and yellow cedar, exports. The
Finger Mountain timber sale which is in a roadless area near
Tenakee is abounding in spawning salmon, but the reason for that
sale is to target on round export of cedar. She asked who is
benefiting?
She said according to the Tongass Road Conditions Survey Report
released in June 2000, two thirds of the culverts crossing salmon
streams provided inadequate fish passage and eighty five percent of
the culverts crossing trout streams provided inadequate fish
passage. "Out of an estimated $20 million backlog to fix more than
700 of these culverts that are blocking safe fish passage, the
Forest Service has been budgeting only about a half million dollars
a year. At this rate it's going to take 40 years to fix current
fish passage problems on the Tongass."
MS. KIRSCH said, "The Alaska Legislature should call for sufficient
federal funding to fix these culverts providing jobs for Southeast
Alaskans and safe passage for wild salmon so important to our
commercial and sports fishermen."
MS. KIRSCH pointed out several errors in the "Whereas" section of
HJR 6. "The resolution claims that the forest products industry
contributes significant revenue to the local communities to the 25
percent revenue sharing provision in federal law. However, a new
federal law was passed last year that guarantees stable payments
for roads and schools to local forest communities. Under the new
statute, local governments will receive an annual payment
equivalent to the average payment of their three highest years of
timber receipts over the past 15 years. Any reduction in timber
receipts on the Tongass will not reduce the amount of money
Southeast Alaska's communities receive for roads and schools."
MS. SUE SCHRADER, Alaska Conservation Voters, said the vast
majority of her members are frequent users of the Tongass and
Chugach National Forests for subsistence, recreational and
commercial activities. They have supported efforts by the U.S.
Forest Service to protect the roadless areas in these forests. She
listed the communities where there were hearings: Anchorage,
Girdwood, Seward, Cordova, Sitka, Ketchikan, Juneau, Yakutat, Kake,
Tenakee, Hoonah, Petersberg, Thorn Bay, Craig, Angoon, Gustavus,
and Wrangell. Over 1,000 people attended those hearings and 62
percent testified in support of including the Chugach and the
Tongass.
MS. SCHRADER said you could see proof of why so many people are
concerned about building roads when looking at Washington state and
the collateral damage that roads in their national forests have
caused - landslides, damage to salmon streams, problems with game
poaching, and increased risks of human caused fires. She concluded
by asking the committee to reconsider her information and not
support the resolution.
MR. DARRELL THOMAS, Aide to Senator Taylor, supported HJR 6 saying,
"The Southeast timber industry has suffered blow after blow in the
past few years dealt by the federal government. These blows were
fatal to two pulp mills, both major employers of Southeast Alaska."
He said that there are only a couple of saw mills operating today
and the loss of jobs has resulted in severe negative economic
impacts to much of Southeast Alaska. "The Roadless Area
Conservation Rule would deliver the final blow to an entire way of
life for thousands of people. Without roads, they have no access to
schools, stores, or even medical attention."
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON said he had put together amendment #1 which
recognizes the President has taken an action to delay the Roadless
Policy for 60 days.
SENATOR HALFORD moved to insert amendment #1 on page 3, line 20. It
reads, "and WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature expresses its
appreciation of the recent temporary delay for 60 days of the
Roadless Area Conservation Rule;".
SENATOR ELTON asked if the sponsor of the resolution supported the
resolution. Representative Wilson said that she didn't have a
problem with it.
There were no objections and the amendment was adopted.
SENATOR ELTON moved amendment #2 on page 1, line 8 to delete "the
25 percent". The reason is that last October Congress passed and
the President signed an alternative way to the 25 percent process.
The alternative ways allow communities in the Tongass to average
the high three of the last 15 years receipts. He thought most
communities in Southeast Alaska would use that method because it
would bring in a lot more money to them. Representative Wilson said
she didn't object to the motion. There were no further objections
and the amendment was adopted.
SENATOR HALFORD moved to pass SCS CSHJR 6 from committee with
individual recommendations.
SENATOR ELTON objected to say that he is very conflicted about this
resolution. He does not read the provisions of ANILCA the same way
the sponsor does. He said in 1976 as editor of the Juneau Empire,
he began writing articles to encourage the process of planning in
the Tongass National Forest. Most of the decisions that were made
were by politics and not necessarily by good management policy
which bothered him. He said we had come a long way since then. If
he had written a way of handling federal management decisions in
the Tongass, he would have ended up with a process remarkably
similar to the TLMP process. He feels the same now that 150 - 200
million board feet to be cut per year was a good number for the
Tongass - a significant drop from the existing cut. They came up
with "a process that was a wrenching divisive process that
eventually led to the TLMP process and through various amendments
to the TLMP process, to a cut figure in the neighborhood of 150
million board feet, right where I wanted to be 10 years ago." He
said he is bothered by a process that leads to an executive order
by any president that leads us to something that abrogates the TLMP
process that was very painful. He didn't know how he was going to
vote on this resolution when it reached the floor.
SENATOR ELTON told Chairman Torgerson that he appreciated the way
he had run the meeting on this issue that has divided people rather
than bringing them together.
There was no further discussion or objection and the bill passed
out of committee.
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