Legislature(2017 - 2018)BUTROVICH 205
03/26/2018 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
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| Audio | Topic |
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| Start | |
| Confirmation Hearing(s): | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
March 26, 2018
3:30 p.m.
DRAFT
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Cathy Giessel, Chair
Senator John Coghill, Vice Chair
Senator Natasha von Imhof
Senator Kevin Meyer
Senator Bill Wielechowski
Senator Click Bishop
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Bert Stedman
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
CONFIRMATION HEARINGS:
Board of Game
Teresa Sager-Albaugh, Tok
Larry Van Daele, Kodiak
- CONFIRMATIONS ADVANCED
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
TERESA SAGER-ALBAUGH
Tok, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Reappointee to the Board of Game.
LARRY VAN DAELE
Kodiak, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Reappointee to the Board of Game.
MARK RICHARDS, Executive Director
Resident Hunters of Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported the reappointments of Ms. Albaugh
and Mr. Van Daele to the Board of Game.
AL BARRETTE, member
Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Said the Fairbanks Advisory Committee voted
unanimously to support Ms. Albaugh's appointment to the Board of
Game.
SAM ROHRER, President
Alaska Professional Hunters Association
Kodiak, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported the reappointments of Ms. Albaugh
and Mr. Van Daele to the Board of Game.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:30:12 PM
CHAIR CATHY GIESSEL called the Senate Resources Standing
Committee meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Bishop, Meyer, Coghill, and Chair Giessel.
Senator Stedman was excused.
^Confirmation Hearing(s):
CONFIRMATION HEARING(S)
Board of Game
3:31:12 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL announced confirmation hearings for the Board of
Game and invited Ms. Sager-Albaugh to tell the committee her
background and why she wants to continue serving on the Board of
Game.
3:31:54 PM
TERESA SAGER-ALBAUGH, reappointee to the Board of Game, Tok,
Alaska, said she appreciated their consideration for this
appointment. She is a lifelong Alaskan and grew up in Fairbanks
in a hunting and fishing family. She has always felt fortunate
to live in a place where people have an incredible opportunity
to enjoy wildlife in so many ways. She moved to the Tok Cutoff
in 1984 where she and her husband chose a lifestyle of space and
simplicity that included a modest log home where she and her
husband haul water, run a trap line, hunt and fish, and work
throughout the year to fill their freezer with wild food. They
also raise a garden in two greenhouses. In recent years, they
raise domestic livestock to add to their food supply.
In terms of her qualifications for serving on the Board of Game,
which she has served on since 2009, she doesn't have the type of
degree or professional background they might expect or consider
to be a standard prerequisite such as in natural resource or
wildlife management. Instead, she brings more of a layman
Alaskan background to the board.
For a living, in 1996 Ms. Albaugh said she took a position with
Summit Consulting, an engineering and construction management
firm in Tok, and she has been with them for over 20 years. Prior
to that, in the 1980s and early 90s she was a legislative aide
for 12 years. With regard to volunteer positions, she previously
served on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Outdoor Council
and its sister organization, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Fund; she is also a life-member of the National
Rifle Association (NRA).
3:34:07 PM
MS. ALBAUGH said she tries to bring to the table an average
Alaskan's perspective from living in both urban and rural parts
of the state, and having a hunting, fishing, and trapping
background. As a board member, she makes an effort to keep her
contributions to its deliberations and her votes grounded in the
Constitution and the statutes to the best of her ability. She
offered to take questions.
3:34:38 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI joined the committee.
3:34:45 PM
SENATOR MEYER thanked her for serving on the board and asked
about her conviction record that was mentioned in her resume'.
Was she referring to a speeding ticket?
MS. ALBAUGH answered yes.
CHAIR GIESSEL, finding no further questions for Ms. Albaugh,
invited Mr. Van Daele to tell the committee why he would like to
be reappointed to the Board of Game.
3:35:38 PM
LARRY VAN DAELE, reappointee to the Board of Game, Kodiak,
Alaska, said in August of 1956, he was born in Okinawa, Japan,
while his father was flying for the CIA dropping off spies in
North Viet Nam in the dead of night. For the next 18 years he
and his mom lived a vagabond lifestyle as his father continued
his career as a fighter pilot in the Air Force. This lifestyle
exposed the family to a wide variety of cultures and people and
instilled a survival skill of finding ways to understand and be
open to new people and situations. His family also took the
opportunities to explore the hunting, fishing, and myriad of
other outdoor activities in each of their new areas. He was
immensely jealous of his Dad's Alaska stories whenever he
returned with his missile base filled with crab legs and salmon.
MR. VAN DAELE said he attended college at the University of
Idaho where he met his wife and earned a bachelor and a master's
degree in wildlife management. Immediately after graduation,
they packed up and headed north to Alaska. He started with the
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) as a wildlife
technician in 1981 working on the first Susitna hydro project
and continued to work for the department for the next 34 years.
During that time, he was an assistant area biologist and later
an area biologist in Kodiak, an area biologist in Dillingham, a
regional biologist, assistant management coordinator, and
finally the regional supervisor in Anchorage. He was able to
work with his colleagues throughout the state on a wide variety
of species with most of his focus on brown bears, caribou,
moose, deer, goats, and elk. He also managed the Round Island
State Game Sanctuary and served as the state's representative on
the Eskimo Walrus Commission for several years.
In 2007, Mr. Van Daele earned his PhD with a dissertation on the
population status and management of bears in the Kodiak
Archipelago. His work with brown bears extended to other
countries when he was chosen to lead the Northern Forum Brown
Bear Work Group and served as co-chair of the IUC in the North
Asian Brown Bear Expert Team. These roles gave him a chance to
go to the Russian Far East, Hokkaido Japan, Sweden, and Canada
to work with colleagues and share ideas about bear research and
management. He also wrote a book on the history of bears in the
Kodiak Islands and recently co-authored a book on photographing
bears.
His wife, Hillary, is a trained biologist, but she shifted her
career path to be a fulltime mom when her only son, Matt, was
born. Matt graduated from Kodiak High School, achieved the rank
of Eagle Scout and went on to earn a B.S. and M.S degree in
zoology. He returned to Kodiak to work for the Koniag Native
Corporation for several years as their natural resource manager,
until last year when he was chosen to be the deputy city manager
of Kodiak. He is also on the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly. His
wife, Mary, is an artist, and in July last year they welcomed
their first grandchild, Matilda, into the world.
MR. VAN DAELE said since retirement in 2015, he has worked part
time in his consulting business. In 2016, he spent several
months assisting a local Native corporation to establish a bear
viewing lodge in Kodiak. Last year he worked for the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as they worked to put together an
international live broadcast from several locations in Alaska
highlighting it wildlife. He volunteered for the Kodiak Electric
Association recently helping them analyze the impacts of
expanding the capacity of their hydro-electric project on bears
and other wildlife, and he was a co-chair of a local nonprofit
group that raised funds and commissioned a life-sized bronze
statute of an adult male bear to commemorate the contributions
of Native people in the guiding industry in the conservation of
bears in Kodiak.
3:40:11 PM
Because of his professional role with the ADF&G, and now with
the Board of Game, Mr. Van Daele said he has opted to refrain
from having memberships or positions in organizations that are
directly impacted by his decisions. While he supports the
mission of several different groups and follows them on the
Internet and talks with their members, he doesn't want to be
seen as a supporter of one group over another. However, he has
maintained his membership in the Wildlife Society where he is a
certified wildlife biologist, the International Bear Association
where is on the Brown Bear Expert Team, the Alutiiq Museum
Collections Committee, Pioneers of Alaska, and Saint Mary's
Catholic Church. He is also the chairman of the Kodiak State
Park Citizens Advisory Board, and last year he was appointed by
Governor Walker to serve on the Board of Game. He serves as the
board's representative on the Big Game Commercial Services
Board, as well.
MR. VAN DAELE summarized that Alaska has given him many things
and he wants to continue offering his talents to the Board of
Game as a way of giving back to the people and the wildlife of
the state. "Serving on the board is an awesome honor and it's
just an incredible responsibility," he said.
3:41:28 PM
His primary goals while on the board are:
1. Maintain healthy wildlife populations
2. Provide food security, respect for cultural and traditional
practices and enhancing opportunities for all Alaskans
3. Share those opportunities with visitors whenever possible
4. Return all wildlife management to the state
5. Revitalize trust by all groups in the board process
To do this, Mr. Van Daele said sincere stewardship is needed
that incorporates sustainability, conservation for the future,
and respect for everyone's needs and desires. Polarization and
belittling people with opposing views is eroding our democracy
and our society, in his opinion, and he believes all elected and
appointed officials should work to bring people together and to
seek common ground with understanding and respect. He promises
to do his best to do this as long as he is on the board.
3:42:28 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL, finding no comments from the committee, opened
public testimony.
3:42:54 PM
MARK RICHARDS, Executive Director, Resident Hunters of Alaska
(RHA), Fairbanks, Alaska, supported both the appointees to the
Board of Game. It's important to point out that they support Ms.
Albaugh in spite of the fact that she often doesn't vote their
way on issues before the board. They highly respect that she is
a staunch advocate of following the rules and obligations of the
board to conduct an open and fair public process within the
bounds of its authority.
3:44:25 PM
MR. RICHARDS said they supported Mr. Van Daele's appointment
last year to serve out the term of another board member who had
resigned. His reputation as a biologist and serving as ADF&G's
region 2 supervisor are well known. He has been a very
constructive and informative voice and has attended every board
meeting. He now also represents the Board of Game as its liaison
to the Big Game Commercial Services Board where is he is also a
valuable voice of reason.
3:45:17 PM
AL BARRETTE, member, Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee,
Fairbanks, Alaska, said the Fairbanks Advisory Committee voted
unanimously to support Ms. Albaugh's appointment to the Board of
Game. It is delightful to work with board members who interact
with their committee, even though she is not from their area.
She is available throughout the year to discuss wildlife issues.
They appreciate her ability to read the statutes and to keep the
board on track with what it is allowed to do. She is
approachable at board meetings and relies on new information in
making her decisions.
3:45:50 PM
SENATOR VON IMHOF joined the committee.
3:46:55 PM
SAM ROHRER, President, Alaska Professional Hunters Association
(APHA), Kodiak, Alaska, supported both Ms. Albaugh and Mr. Van
Daele's reappointment to the Board of Game. They are both
valuable members of the board: they come to meetings well
prepared without preconceived ideas and opinions, and with a
strong concern for conservation. While APHA doesn't always agree
with them on all issues, they appreciate the openness in which
they approach the process and their willingness to serve.
3:48:11 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL, finding no further comments, closed public
testimony.
SENATOR COGHILL commented that both people had been highly
recommended, and Interior residents greatly appreciate their
service in this time-consuming job.
3:49:18 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL said in accordance with AS 39.05.080, the
Resources Committee reviewed the following and recommends the
appointments be forwarded to a joint session for consideration:
Board of Game: Theresa Sager-Albaugh, Tok and Lawrence Van
Daele, Kodiak. She reminded members that this does not reflect
an intent by any of the members to vote for or against the
confirmation of the individuals during any further sessions. She
directed committee members to sign the committee report.
3:50:15 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL, finding no further business to come before the
committee, adjourned the Senate Resources Standing Committee
meeting at 3:50 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Senate Resources - Hearing Agenda - 3 - 26 - 18 .pdf |
SRES 3/26/2018 3:30:00 PM |
|
| Appointments - Board of Game Fact Sheet.pdf |
SRES 3/26/2018 3:30:00 PM |
Appointments |
| Appointments - Board of Game Current Roster.pdf |
SRES 3/26/2018 3:30:00 PM |
Appointments |
| Appointments - Support for Van Daele - Sager Albaugh - RHAK - 3 - 23 - 18.pdf |
SRES 3/26/2018 3:30:00 PM |
Appointments |
| Appointments - Board of Game - Resume - Teresa Sager Albaugh.pdf |
SRES 3/26/2018 3:30:00 PM |
Appointments |
| Appointments - Board of Game - Resume - Larry Van Daele.pdf |
SRES 3/26/2018 3:30:00 PM |
Appointments |