04/23/1997 03:40 PM Senate RES

           SCR 10 SUPPORTING USE OF FURBEARER RESOURCE                         
                                                                              
  CHAIRMAN HALFORD  announced  SCR 10  to be up for consideration.            
                                                                               
  SENATOR WILKEN,  sponsor,   said SCR 10 calls for the legislature's        
 endorsement of continued harvest and use by Alaskans of the State's           
 renewable furbearer resources, consistent with the principles of              
 sustained yield.  Not only is trapping an important management tool           
 for helping to maintain healthy furbearer populations; it is also             
 a traditional activity for many Alaskans that helps to promote                
 self-reliance by providing income, food, and clothing.  Trapping              
 ties Alaska to its pioneer roots, and helps to keep alive the very            
 values that built the forty-ninth state.                                      
                                                                               
 CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he thought that Canada had taken action of              
 some sort.  There was an international protocol on furs.  Other               
 countries with a fur bearing interest have exempted themselves from           
 that and the United States has not.  He asked if there was some way           
 to add that to the resolution.                                                
                                                                               
 SENATOR WILKEN replied that he was speaking about the European                
 sanctions which he didn't know a lot about.  He understands the               
 sanctions are against furs that we would normally get in our normal           
 Alaskan way.  Canada, specifically, has acquiesced to harvest in              
 ways that are not compatible with our life style.  We don't want to           
 give up traditional trapping methods.                                         
                                                                               
                                                                               
 MR. DICK BISHOP , Alaska Outdoor Council, supported SCR 10.  He said          
 it is extremely timely, because last fall the Fish and Wildlife               
 Service put out a general invitation for comments on trapping on              
 federal refuges.  Eighty-five percent of the United States federal            
 refuge system is in Alaska and this was an opportunity for anyone             
 who wanted to restrict trapping to comment.  If any restrictions              
 were put on trapping in federal refuges, it would be a real                   
 imposition on Alaskans.  People both in and outside of Alaska have            
 started a campaign to take advantage of this opportunity and have             
 sent out propaganda opposing trapping on federal refuges.                     
                                                                               
 Number 512                                                                    
                                                                               
  MR. WAYNE REGELIN,  Director, Division of Wildlife Conservation,             
 endorsed the resolution.  He said for the past few years they have            
 worked closely with a lot of Alaskan trappers, especially the three           
 Alaska trapper associations.  He thought it was time that trappers            
 get some well-deserved recognition for the good they do, because              
 they get a lot of negative publicity and they have a very                     
 legitimate activity.  He thought the resolution should be sent to             
 all the newspapers in Alaska, too.                                            
 MR. REGELIN explained that they have been working on international            
 humane trapping standards for almost four years through the                   
 International Union of Standards.  The European Union said they               
 wouldn't import furs that were caught unless they met an                      
 international humane trapping standard.  They thought they were               
 close a few years ago to having a standard developed and through              
 international politics they allowed the anti-trapping people into             
 the debate and we lost.  We have been treading water since then.              
 Canada just folded their tents and gave up saying they would ban              
 leg-hold traps.  Alaska does not want to do that; it would                    
 devastate our martin trapping industry.  In Canada, he said, the              
 decision was made in Ottawa, and he didn't think many provinces               
 were pleased.                                                                 
                                                                               
 He said the European Union is in extreme turmoil at this point and            
 we have an alternative plan to proceed if they take action.  He               
 said there is a strong green movement in some countries over there            
 and they will probably win.  We are working on developing a                   
 standard with Russia and Greece.  They are getting great support              
 from the Alaskan delegation.                                                  
                                                                               
  SENATOR LEMAN  moved to pass SCR 10 with individual recommendations.         
 There were no objections and it was so ordered.