Legislature(2005 - 2006)BUTROVICH 205
03/21/2005 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB85 | |
| SB144 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | SB 85 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | SB 144 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 85-OFF-ROAD VEHICLE USE ON DALTON HIGHWAY
CHAIR SEEKINS announced SB 85 to be up for consideration.
BRIAN HOVE, Staff to Senator Seekins, sponsor of SB 85, read the
sponsor statement. He said the Dalton Highway is the only road
north of the Yukon River. Current law bans the use of off-road
vehicles within five miles of the highway's right of way.
Starting at mile 57, the Yukon River crossing, the Dalton
Highway extends 357 miles north to the Arctic Ocean. This law
essentially prohibits access for average Alaskans to recreate on
public land that would otherwise be open to their use. SB 85
removes the prohibition on the use of off-road vehicles within
the five-mile corridor of the Dalton Highway. It provides 12
months for owners to work on land use plans to prepare for it.
In accordance with those plans, campgrounds, trails and public
use cabins could be built while protecting sensitive areas. The
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) already has turnouts, restrooms
and visitor centers constructed to accommodate increased public
interest in this part of Alaska, which is attracting more and
more visitors.
3:44:34 PM
SENATOR GUESS asked the definition of off-road vehicles.
MR. HOVE replied snow machines and ATVs. Snow is on the ground
nine months out of the year up there and trappers have their
trap lines.
CHAIR SEEKINS said off-road vehicle is not defined in statute,
but statute does say:
Off-road vehicles are prohibited on land within five
miles of the right-of-way of the highway. However,
this prohibition does not apply to off-road vehicles
necessary for oil and gas exploration, development,
production or transportation, a person who holds a
mining claim in the vicinity of the highway who must
use the land to be able to get there and the use of
snow machine travel across the highway corridor from
land outside the corridor to access land outside the
other side of the corridor. This paragraph does not
permit the use of snow machines for any purpose within
the corridor if the use begins or ends within the
corridor or within the right-of-way of the highway or
if the use is for travel within the corridor that is
parallel to the right-of-way of the highway or if the
use is for travel within the corridor that is parallel
to the right-of-way of the highway.
He said the highway corridor means lands within five miles of
the highway right-of-way. So, there's a 10-mile stretch that you
can't unload the snow machine off your truck and use it anywhere
in there.
The landowners are primarily the BLM and Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) and he asked them if 12 months would be a
reasonable time for them to put in place the land use plans they
have had or that they have contemplated having eventually. Those
would restrict types of vehicles and time of year they could be
used like they do everyplace else in the United States on public
lands.
3:47:12 PM
SENATOR BEN STEVENS arrived.
3:48:15 PM
SENATOR GUESS asked if federal or state law requires them to do
the land use plan.
SENATOR SEEKINS replied that he didn't know that the BLM is
required to do that under federal law, but they have the
authority and have had their draft plan since 1991.
SENATOR DYSON asked what the history behind the prohibition is.
No one wants to see raping and pillaging of the country because
of open access.
SENATOR SEEKINS replied that the Dalton Highway was not a
secondary public highway until some time after its construction,
but it was open to the public. He has not been able to find a
single document that indicates what the intent was or any kind
of an agreement between parties.
It was simply meant at that time, from what we can
tell, to protect the environment so that, again, we
could perhaps see land use plans that went into effect
to be able to keep from having, as you said, the rape
and pillage of that land, which no one wants to see.
3:53:18 PM
MR. HOVE presented a map of the Dalton Highway.
CHAIR SEEKINS presented a slide show of his trip up the Dalton
Highway.
4:04:12 PM
End of slide show.
4:04:49 PM
SENATOR GUESS asked if Alyeska Pipeline Company supports SB 85
and does it have security concerns.
CHAIR SEEKINS said Alyeska understands that the whole pipeline
has security concerns. If more people are going to be up there,
Alyeska has said it wants the state's help in addressing
security concerns.
4:06:50 PM
CHAIR WAGONER arrived and took the gavel from Chair Seekins.
4:07:53 PM
SENATOR SEEKINS said it's time to plan for when the public uses
the lands along the Dalton Highway. He has no intention of
opening up the corridor to all-terrain trucks, etc.
4:09:38 PM
THOR STACY, Weisman Village, said he is a registered guide,
trapper and life-long Alaskan. He believes in the use of non-
renewable and renewable resources. He stated:
First of all, I want to dispel some myths on SB 85
that have been presented in its favor. For the record,
I'm opposed to SB 85. First of all, the perception
that a large part of Alaska would be opened up that
has been 'locked up'. As you can see from the land use
map...most of the land north of the Yukon is federal
refuges, parks and preserve. This will, by federal
statute, not be opened up to off-road vehicle use -
thus creating intensive use on state DNR land that
they have already discussed building on, which they
have a plan for.
He said that this would be a unnecessary law, because people are
already using off-road vehicles and there is no enforcement.
There are already legal accesses for mineral exploration,
private lands beyond the corridor, going through the corridor
from one side to another on snow machine and others.
MR. STACY said further:
There is a perception that the land is unused and an
underutilized resource. That's also incorrect. Right
now our game population on state lands - and I'm
familiar with it as a hunting guide...I use these as a
trapper.... We're having a hard year this year. We're
having a bad time for moose. We're at maximum
sustained yield. We have a very low density moose
population in the Yukon flats and the mountains of the
Brooks Range - averaging .1 to .2 moose per square
mile. It's a very different part of the world than the
sub-arctic parts of Alaska.
4:13:22 PM
He said another myth is that there is extensive infrastructure
in place to support expanded use. Existing pullouts are there
for heavy industrial traffic to support commercial
infrastructure on the North Slope. Recreation vehicles will
cause a serious hazard for commercial traffickers.
4:14:21 PM
MR. STACY said four caribou herds will be accessed by this road
currently, they are all depleted requiring intensive management
by the state, which is in violation of its constitutional
mandate of sustained yield. Unit 16 has a high predator harvest
to reestablish equilibrium in nature. Currently there are non-
resident seasons for moose or caribou in those areas because
there is a tier system of local subsistence. He did not think it
would take much stretch of the imagination to see the impacts on
all three of the caribou herds that cross the road.
4:15:54 PM
He pointed out that access is tool that can be used to manage
remote resources. There is one game warden at Coldfoot for
enforcement of the entire Brooks Range, the foothills and north
to the Arctic Coast. He is competent, but he won't be able to
respond to the additional access and use problems. SB 85 needs a
fiscal note because enforcement will cost the state more than it
does now.
4:18:07 PM
There are no trails or off-road vehicle tracks in the
wilderness, although there are mining trails that were put in
100 years ago. He said the tracks from an off-road vehicles will
be left for over 100 years. "The impact at first will be small,
but in time it won't be what it was."
Right now it is legal to use airplanes, horses, boats, walking;
there is no restriction on reasonable access. The system
protects the resource. People come to Weisman for the wilderness
and the state doesn't need to spend money to maintain a slow
deterioration.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked where his trap line is.
4:21:59 PM
MR. STACY outlined several of his trails.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked him if he accessed it with a snow machine.
MR. STACY replied yes.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked him if he knew that is illegal.
MR. STACY replied that it's not illegal for subsistence
activities.
4:22:42 PM
SENATOR SEEKINS said it is illegal according to state law.
MR. STACY responded that subsistence activities are not allowed
with a snow machine on state land.
SENATOR SEEKINS said that he is trying to correct for reasonable
access so people are not breaking the law.
CHAIR WAGONER closed the hearing due to no phone lines and said
he would hold the bill.
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