Legislature(2003 - 2004)
02/24/2004 01:40 PM Senate TRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 298-OFF-ROAD VEHICLE USE ON DALTON HIGHWAY
CO-CHAIR WAGONER announced SB 298 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR RALPH SEEKINS, sponsor, referencing his sponsor
statement, said the state's statutes prevail over Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) statutes, when they more restrictive. The
Dalton Highway was opened to public use during the Hickel
administration and now, 10 years later, it is time to allow
public use of the lands on either side of it. There is no reason
not to it is done safely and with care for the environment. SB
298 asks that the statute be totally repealed.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER asked if the five-mile prohibition was for
recreation and hunting only.
SENATOR SEEKINS replied it was for any purpose whatsoever, but
it does not apply to off-road vehicles necessary for oil and gas
exploration, development, production or transportation, or to a
person who holds a mining claim in the vicinity of the highway
who must use land within five miles of right-of way to gain
access to it - or if you start on one side of the corridor, you
can drive through it to get to the other side, but you can't
start in the middle to get to either side.
MR. ACE CALLAWAY, Alaska Trappers Association, supported Senator
Seekins' description of his dilemma as a trapper. A number of
other trappers have been affected; one has a 275-mile long tap
line with cabins that he has run for almost 15 years. There is
no way he could run that line with on-foot access - and he can't
afford the cost of removing the cabins.
TAPE 04-5, SIDE B
MR. CALLAWAY explained that he is a disabled veteran and his
only access to his 250-mile trap line is by snowmobile. One
solution is to do away with the statute and another would be for
the state to make vehicle access points through the corridor. He
favored deleting the statute.
DR. BRIAN PEARSON, biologist, Department of Wildlife Management,
Fairbanks North Star Borough, opposed SB 298 for several
reasons. Removing the five-mile corridor along the Dalton
Highway would increase hunting and trapping pressure and
harassment of wildlife on the North Slope.
This is important for several reasons. First, if
you're going to increase the competition between
subsistence hunters and sport hunters and this
increase in hunting pressure will likely result in a
change in regulation that would effect the ability of
subsistence hunters to harvest an adequate number of
animals to support themselves and their community.
Second, and perhaps as important, the Central Arctic
herd has served as a good study herd toward the
impacts of oil development on caribou on the North
Slope. An increase in hunting will certainly change
our ability to investigate the impacts of oil
development on wildlife.
Finally, biologically, caribou likely cannot withstand
the increases in combined disturbance from both
industry and harvest pressures. Virtually all the
caribou herds in the state that can be accessed by
roads. Managers have had to impose pretty stringent
management efforts to maintain those herds in a viable
population. Secondly, removing the corridor is
certainly going to cause damage to the tundra from
all-terrain vehicles. The North Slope north of the
Brooks Range is certainly underlain by permafrost.
There are numerous examples that the damage caused by
ATVs is long-term....
DR. PEARSON said there is only one state trooper on the North
Slope and law enforcement would be a real issue. The oil
industry would have security issues that are closely linked with
law enforcement.
SENATOR THERRIAULT said many of the same arguments were made
when the road was opened up and asked if any studies showed its
detrimental effects yet.
DR. PEARSON replied that hunters had increased in number along
the corridor; caribou had been found with arrows in them from an
increase in archery hunters there.
CO-CHAIR COWDERY reasoned if the law didn't exist, enforcement
would not be needed. He didn't think the additional all-terrain
vehicle traffic would cause much damage.
DR. PEARSON differed saying that different communities are
proactive in the efforts they take to protect the tundra. An
increase in traffic from the state opening up the Dalton Highway
corridor would certainly increase the amount of damage to the
tundra. Tundra damage has been documented numerous times.
SENATOR THERRIAULT asked if he would support establishing a
minimum snow cover.
DR. PEARSON replied that would certainly mitigate the effects on
the tundra, but that doesn't discount his other concerns about
an increase in hunting pressure.
MR. LEE OLSON, Fairbanks, said he is also a disabled veteran and
he supports SB 298 because it would help give him access to
hunting.
SENATOR LINCOLN asked him what game he hunts. He replied
caribou.
MR. DICK BISHOP, Fairbanks, supported SB 298. It's time to
recognize that the potential affects on lands and waters can be
regulated under other statutes.
SENATOR THERRIAULT asked him for examples of other statutes and
regulations that could be used to mitigate the impacts of
increased access.
MR. BISHOP said the Board of Game and the Division of Sport
Fisheries (DSF) could use their regulations and the Department
of Natural Resources (DNR) has land management authority over
state lands.
MR. RAYMOND PANEAK, Anaktuvik Pass hunter, opposed SB 298
because the added hunting competition would have detrimental
affects on the caribou herds and their wintering grounds. He was
also concerned about ATVs destroying the tundra.
SENATOR LINCOLN asked him to explain how opening the corridor
would affect his village.
MR. PANEAK responded that subsistence hunters and trappers would
be adversely affected. "We're going to have problems."
SENATOR LINCOLN asked Mr. Paneak if he was speaking for all the
people of Anaktuvik Pass.
MR. PANEAK replied that he is speaking for his village, Nuiqsut
and all the villages in his area. They use the same caribou
herd.
MR. MATT ROBUS, Director, Division of Wildlife Conservation,
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), said he wasn't
taking a position on this bill at this time, but he wanted to
present some wildlife considerations for the committee's
information.
Foremost of these would be management of the Central
Arctic caribou herd. At present that herd can sustain
a maximum allowable harvest of about 1,500 animals
annually. If the taking of the ORV vehicle
restrictions were to stimulate a very large increase
in hunting effort, we could be in the position where
the Board of Game would have to consider using season
and bag limit restrictions or some other mechanism to
restrict hunting pressure to be at an allowable level.
If that became restrictive of subsistence opportunity,
you could see either the state or the federal
subsistence process start to distinguish between which
hunters could participate in that hunt.... We have
some similar considerations for Dall Sheep and musk ox
seasons along the Haul Road because those populations
cannot sustain large increases in the hunting pressure
from where they are at presently.
MR. ROBUS said the Board of Game has used other tools and one of
those is a regulation that is currently in effect for a Dalton
Highway management area that goes from the Yukon River north to
Dead Horse. That regulation, which was promulgated under the
state's wildlife management statutes, AS 16.05.255, would remain
in effect even if this statute were repealed. As presently
written, that regulation tightly controls the use of any
motorized vehicle with exceptions for hunting and does not
restrict it at all for trapping.
Use of motorized vehicles to assist trapping is within
bounds under our regulation. However, hunting is
restricted to bow and arrow within five miles of the
highway and motorized vehicles are not allowed to be
used unless they are airplanes, boats or a licensed
highway vehicle on a publicly maintained road. Those
can be adjusted one way or the other by the Board of
Game, but those are the type of management
restrictions that have been put into place by the
board to mediate the amount of hunting that occurs in
that part of the state. That's for biological reasons.
If that does stay in affect, I want to point out that
that would only restrict hunting and would not
restrict the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) for other
purposes for anything from mining to berry picking, I
suppose. So, we could still have some effects from
repealing this statute in terms of harassment of game.
He pointed out that the regulatory system along the Dalton
Highway is very tangled and urged caution in undoing everything,
because it could lead to using regulations to cure impacts that
would be more painful to live with than what there is now.
SENATOR LINCOLN said she thought more law enforcement would be
needed because of the harassment and killing of animals that
might already be in scarce supply. She asked how many troopers
were in the area now and how many would be needed.
MR. ROBUS replied that the Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement is
recruiting for a position to be filled in Coldfoot. Typically,
one trooper has been in that post. "I think it's safe to say
that if you have more hunting activity and more hunting pressure
or other forms of interaction with wildlife, you would also have
more enforcement need."
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if he found a negative impact on moose
herds from the use of all terrain vehicles in the Talkeetna
area.
MR. ROBUS replied that issue is debated and he didn't have any
documented effects. Some people think there are fewer places for
game to take refuge in Unit 13. His point is that vehicle
restriction is a management tool that is used by the board that
would have to go to another tool if game herds were negatively
impacted. Of all the uses that might occur, he couldn't
speculate on how much activity would be related to hunting, but
probably a lot.
SENATOR SEEKINS pointed out that that area is so remote, that
people have to be wealthy enough to fly in to access it. It
seems to him that there shouldn't be exclusive access to lands
in the state of Alaska.
SENATOR LINCOLN said she is very familiar with the road since
she uses it a lot in the summer.
There hasn't been a place that I have pulled over that
I haven't seen oil drums and oil cans and garbage cans
and diapers. There is an immense amount of garbage on
that highway. During moose hunting season I think I
counted almost 400 trailers that were parked by the
bridge up there. We have put out fires on both sides
of the river from people who were careless.... I would
expect if that corridor were opened - and public
safety is a real concern - enforcement is a real
concern. There just isn't the enforcement up there now
to accommodate the traffic that's there....
TAPE 04-6, SIDE A
SENATOR LINCOLN said she would like to think that the good
citizens of the state of Alaska would leave that area the same
way it was when they arrived, but she can attest that that is
not the case.
SENATOR SEEKINS said he travels the Haul Road, too, and knows
that hundreds of trucks travel it every week and he thought
their use should be accommodated.
Just to say that because someone else in the past may
have not been sensitive to how they got rid of oil
cans or anything else, in my opinion, is not reason to
limit the people of the state of Alaska to have access
to millions of acres of lands and to be able to use
those lands responsibly. I think we can accommodate
both uses....
CO-CHAIR WAGONER said there would be an additional hearing on
this bill and closed today's hearing. He adjourned the meeting
at 3:25 p.m.
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