Legislature(1995 - 1996)
02/10/1995 03:38 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SRES - 2/10/95
SJR 12 U.S. FOREST SERVICE PLAN
CHAIRMAN LEMAN called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to
order at 3:38 p.m. He said they didn't have a quorum yet, but would
begin to take testimony on SJR 12.
SENATOR TAYLOR, sponsor, said early in December the Forest Service
announced its "reinvention plan" which would centralize the
decision making in Washington, D.C. This policy flies in the face
of President Clinton's Executive Order 12875 calling for "enhancing
intergovernmental partnerships." It also goes against Vice
President Gore's report on empowering state and local governments
and decentralizing the decision making power.
Under "reinvention" regional forest supervisors and other front
line leaders who now have decision making authority would be
replaced with four people in "leadership teams" answerable only to
the Chief of the Forest Service and the Secretary of Agriculture.
Gone is any pretense of involving local and state governments in
U.S. Forest Service decisions.
The plan consolidates the regional offices now located in Alaska
and Montana to a central office in Oregon. SJR 12 calls for
suspension of this plan and true partnership meetings with states,
communities and tribal governments. His suggested Committee
Substitute adds ANCSA Corporations to that list.
SENATOR TAYLOR said the "reinvention scheme" goes far beyond the
relocation of regional offices. It will mean Forest Service policy
dictated from "on-high" without consulting the people most impacted
by those policies.
He noted a poll that was taken by the federal government that
included less than 15% of respondents living west of the
Mississippi River. 85% of the people polled about what to do with
our Forest Service live in states that don't have a Forest Service
office. The majority of the 15% lived in either Los Angeles or in
one of the midwest cities around St. Louis.
He said he was contacted by five retired members of the U.S. Forest
Service who were very upset with the "reinvention" process. He
said all of their comments were completely disregarded in
Washington. They received a letter from Jack Ward Thomas telling
about the reinvention and one of the primary concerns was that the
Forest Service Offices reflect "ecosystem management." He said now
they have semi-arid dessert areas of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and
Washington connected up with the rain forest environment of
Southeast Alaska.
This resolution, SENATOR TAYLOR said, calls upon the federal
government to listen to the people that are affected. He noted
that this community stands to lose a significant portion of its
employment base, but the biggest problem is that they will be
further diluted in their ability to do effective decision making in
the area being regulated.
Adding the ANCSA Corporation members to the resolution is very
important, he said, because they are the largest private land
owners within the Tongass.
Number 186
CHUCK ACHBERGER, Director, Juneau Chamber of Commerce, said the
history of the Tongass is one of compromise on the part of
industry. Out of 17 million acres we are down to 1.7 million acres
of harvestable area for timber.
The regional mandate of the Forest Service was to create economic
growth using federal lands. This has been sacrificed to the
current politics of special interest groups who would merge the
Forest Service into a Park Service.
In closing, he said, the Forest Service cannot be trusted.
Washington D.C. continually succumbs to the political pressure of
the environmental community. We have one of the largest forests
"in the world" and we can't support a mill.
Number 214
VERN MILLER, Executive Director, Southeast Conference, said that
while many aspects of the Forest Service reinvention plan may have
merit, the Southeast Conference is strongly opposed to two specific
elements: merging the Alaska region with the Pacific Northwest
region and moving the headquarters to Portland. That would take
Forest Service people who make decisions that affect Alaskans and
move them out of Alaska. And second, regardless of where the
headquarters is located, replacing a regional forester with a four-
person management team will result in decisions being kicked to
higher levels, once again having the net effect of taking the
decision making outside of Alaska. Both of these run counter to
what the President is trying to do which is decentralize decision
making, empower state and local governments and enhance
governmental partnerships. The Conference would support a
resolution that makes those two points strongly.
SENATOR LEMAN asked him if he had seen the Committee Substitute?
MR. MILLER answered yes and he supported it.
Number 247
DAVID KATZ, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, said he wanted
it on the record that of the 17 million acres that nominally
comprise the Tongass National Forest only around 15% of those acres
are actually acres anyone would want to harvest. Those also turn
out to be the acres that are most important for wildlife, fish,
subsistence, tourism, and all the other uses that we put this
forest to. The Tongass National Forest is a multiple use and
sustained yield forest. Conflicts over habitat areas are about all
wildlife - supporting wildlife for future generations of Alaskans
for hunters, fishermen, and guides, etc..
MR. KATZ said he knew of no one in his organization or anyone else
that wants to make this whole area into a park. They want to
maintain the integrity of the Tongass as a multiple use and
sustained yield forest.
Regarding SJR 12, he thought it tried to do too many things and
confuses a couple of things. First he thinks it is reasonable to
keep management of the forest close to the people who live in it.
He did not think management strategy would change by combining
offices. On line 10, page 2 it's important to realize that
community stability depends on forest ecosystem health. Looking at
the long term health of ecosystems helps improve community
stability.
Secondly, he didn't think reinventing government turns away from
providing a continual flow of renewable resources. It doesn't
concentrate on just timber, but all uses.
He urged the Committee to turn away from this single purpose bill
which confuses the idea of reorganizing government with changing
the entire mission of the Forest Service - two things which are not
connected. He would support a different resolution keeping the
regional office here in Juneau for the purposes of managing the
forest for multiple use and sustained yield.
Number 324
SENATOR TAYLOR said he asked the Forest Service for a number of the
total amount of acreage harvested since it became a forest in
around 1908. They told him that 450,000 acres had been harvested
in that period of time. He asked what number of millions of acres
is currently locked up in the single use of Wilderness? MR. KATZ
answered around 5 million acres are in Wilderness.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if Wilderness was a multiple use concept. MR.
KATZ said his understanding was that you could access Wilderness
areas by fixed-wing craft in Alaska. He said a balance had to be
reached in the types of land available in the forest.
SENATOR TAYLOR said he was only concerned with what percent of the
forest could be utilized for people to earn a living on harvesting
trees and opening it up for other recreational uses.
MR. KATZ said the Forest Service now plans to harvest 1.7 million
acres of the forest over 100 years. They believe that will sustain
the industry that is here.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked him if he thought that was appropriate. MR.
KATZ answered he thought that was appropriate if it could be done
in a way that balances all the uses in the forest. He said it is
important to realize that all acres are not created equal on this
forest. The vast amount of harvesting has occurred in the highest
value fish and wildlife habitat.
Number 399
SARA HANNAN, Alaska Environmental Lobby, said she applauded a
couple of the Resolves in Senator Taylor's resolution. She said
the communities that depend on our forest resources are complex in
their economics and ecosystem. She applauded Senator Taylor for
urging government entities to work with local users in resolving
resource disputes. She was also very concerned with the loss of
jobs to Juneau and other Alaska communities.
The other FURTHER RESOLVED she approved of was including tribal
governments that are frequently overlooked when the State talks
about partnerships and resource use in the "true partnership
meetings."
Number 430
SENATOR LEMAN officially called the meeting to order saying the
Committee had had a quorum for at least the last fifteen minutes.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved to adopt the CS to SJR 12. There were no
objections and it was so ordered.
SENATOR FRANK asked what was the history of fish populations in the
Southeastern waters for the last 50 years. Had it been declining?
SENATOR TAYLOR answered going back to 1945 fish populations were in
the decline. By the early 50's fish levels had declined
dramatically. Logging started with some intensity with the
building of the pulp mill in 1954. Since about 1962 or 1963 fish
runs have been on the increase. Today a normal run in Southeast
Alaska has three times the volume of salmon that a run had in the
late 50's or early 60's.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass CSSJR 12 (Res) from Committee with
individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so
ordered.
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