HJR 6-ROADLESS POLICY  CHAIRMAN TORGERSON announced HJR 6 to be up for consideration. Number 1700 REPRESENTATIVE PEGGY WILSON, sponsor, said HJR 6 opposes the inclusion of Alaska's Tongass and Chugach National Forests in the Roadless Policy and wants to overturn it. The Tongass and the Chugach Land Management Plans have cost many millions of dollars. The Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) has already been in effect for over 11 years costing $13 million and countless hours. The Chugach took 3 years. They were led to believe the national forests in Alaska wouldn't be included in this program. MS. RACHEL MORELAND, Alaska Forest Association, said they strongly supported HJR 6. MR. DICK COOSE, Ketchikan resident, said he has lived in Southeast Alaska for 20 years and has hunted and fished on the Tongass and the roads and clear cuts are very useful for those activities. He is retired from the Forest Service after 34 years of service. He assured them that the Tongass was not as bad off as the preservationists put it. MR. JOE SEBASTIAN, Prince of Wales Island, said that is the most heavily, densely roaded space anywhere in Alaska outside of downtown Anchorage. He strongly supported the Roadless Policy and the inclusion of the Tongass and the Chugach in it. He also defends the concepts of the Tongass Land Management Plan. "The Roadless Policy embarks on a new era and a new moral consciousness concerning natural tracts of land still left to us and calls a halt to industrial exploitation of nature." MS. CORRIE BOSMAN, Sitka, opposed HJR 6 and supported the application of the Roadless Policy to the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests. She didn't think the legislature understood the policy after speaking with Representative Wilson who, she thought, was very misinformed. She thought the policy was a complete ban on any new road construction and that's not true. "This policy only applies to areas that are currently inventoried as roadless. There will still be road construction permitted outside of those areas in both the Tongass and the Chugach." She said that people in Sitka and other communities in southeast Alaska who participated in the Management Plan process overwhelmingly showed support for this application to the Tongass. She said, "I am appalled at the way both Governor Knowles and the Forest Service has been handling this. This was lawfully signed into law. It has been disregarded. These are federal lands. They need to be managed on behalf of people here in Alaska, but also all the other people throughout the nation that these lands belong to." MR. DON MUELLER, Manager, Old Harbor Books, Sitka, said he strongly supported including Alaska in the National Roadless Policy. He thought it was wise for the long-term economics of Southeast Alaska. Number 2400 MR. MARK RORICK, Sierra Club, said he lived in Juneau for 30 years and didn't think he could change their minds within this forum, but he said there had been much misinformation about the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. He gave an example of the Cholmondeley [east Prince of Wales Island] timber sale, a 35 million board feet timber sale in the Mackenzie roadless area on Prince of Wales Island. Since the EIS came out before the rule, the sale went forward. "It targets the best low elevation, high volume, old growth stands. The sale units followed stream valleys up three of the areas most productive water sheds and constructs 23 miles of road and crosses the stream 63 times. Many of the road segments are steep and prone to land slides. The drinking water supplies of the residents of Sunny Cove, Clover Bay, and Saltree Cove are jeopardized. Two lodge businesses that contribute more than $2 million per year to the Ketchikan economy are being put at risk." TAPE 10, SIDE B    MR. RORICK said, "With this sale, the Forest Service has ignored the recommendations of the interagency biologists when establishing the old growth reserves called for by the forest plan[TLMP] and opted for getting the maximum ASQ out at the expense of the areas wildlife." MR. JAN KONIGSBERG, Alaska Salmonid Biodiversity Program of Trout Unlimited, opposed HJR 6. He said that Trout Unlimited supported the roadless conservation policy. He didn't want to talk them out of the current resolution so much as to oppose its current language. He suggested it be amended in favor of some balance with respect to the system that is already roaded in the National Forest, particularly in the Tongass. MR. KONIGSBERG said he thought it was the state's responsibility in terms of salmon production to ensure there is good fish habitat. There has been more than 20 years of recognition in the Tongass, in particular, that there is a fish passage problem with the roads and culverts. After more than 40 years of industrial logging, there has been some reduction in fish production. That should really be addressed first. "Support of litigation for new roads seems to me to be a bit one-sided unless there is an equal demand to first fix the old roads. It makes good sense. It's good housekeeping." MR. KONIGSBERG had draft language he had presented to the committee on this issue. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON thanked him, but said that he is not in favor of amending this resolution to talk about something other than what it was designed for. He would support a resolution that told the feds "to clean up their act on areas that you have identified of culverts not letting the fish through and other things. That's just good sound business practice." MR. PAT VEESART, Executive Director, Sitka Conservation Society, said he was very involved in organizing to build public support for the Roadless Policy. He has had the opportunity of talking to hundreds and hundreds of Alaskans and thousands of visitors to Alaska about the Roadless Policy and was overwhelmed by the level of public support for it. The committee is being asked to pass a resolution that is against the public will he said. The Roadless Administrative Rulemaking process was a highly publicized, very public process that was open to everybody. It was nation-wide with 617 hearings with 39,000 Americans attending those hearings; 1.6 million Americans commented on it. Over a million of those people favored the rule and favored inclusion of the Tongass. It was the largest public process in the USDA history. After 17 hearings in Alaska, 62 percent of the people who spoke favored the policy, 75 percent in Southeast Alaska's four largest cities favored the policy. Local forest planning is always subject to change in the national policy that is brought about by a change in public attitude about how our national forests are managed. "This process was exemplary and it was open to everyone…It is exactly how policy should be made in a democracy." MS. KATYA KIRSCH, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC), said she has lived in the region for 25 years and has seen a lot of clear cutting. In the last decade, she has seen a much more diverse economy, including a huge growth in tourism, recreation industries, high businesses, fishing, and a lot more. She said, "It's time to stop looking backward to recreate the economy that chews our landscape for the gain of just one industry. Our region's largest industries depend on a healthy Tongass National Forest. While employment in the timber industry has been declining, there have been increases in tourism, recreation, construction, health care, and other parts of the economy….This decision is not about closing down any of the nearly 5,000 miles of road that currently exist on the Tongass. It is about managing those valuable wild lands for multiple use that are now roadless for purposes such as hunting, fishing, subsistence, recreation, and tourism." MS. KIRSCH commented that 50 percent of the timber from the Chumley sale is going out as round logs, red and yellow cedar, exports. The Finger Mountain timber sale which is in a roadless area near Tenakee is abounding in spawning salmon, but the reason for that sale is to target on round export of cedar. She asked who is benefiting? She said according to the Tongass Road Conditions Survey Report released in June 2000, two thirds of the culverts crossing salmon streams provided inadequate fish passage and eighty five percent of the culverts crossing trout streams provided inadequate fish passage. "Out of an estimated $20 million backlog to fix more than 700 of these culverts that are blocking safe fish passage, the Forest Service has been budgeting only about a half million dollars a year. At this rate it's going to take 40 years to fix current fish passage problems on the Tongass." MS. KIRSCH said, "The Alaska Legislature should call for sufficient federal funding to fix these culverts providing jobs for Southeast Alaskans and safe passage for wild salmon so important to our commercial and sports fishermen." MS. KIRSCH pointed out several errors in the "Whereas" section of HJR 6. "The resolution claims that the forest products industry contributes significant revenue to the local communities to the 25 percent revenue sharing provision in federal law. However, a new federal law was passed last year that guarantees stable payments for roads and schools to local forest communities. Under the new statute, local governments will receive an annual payment equivalent to the average payment of their three highest years of timber receipts over the past 15 years. Any reduction in timber receipts on the Tongass will not reduce the amount of money Southeast Alaska's communities receive for roads and schools." MS. SUE SCHRADER, Alaska Conservation Voters, said the vast majority of her members are frequent users of the Tongass and Chugach National Forests for subsistence, recreational and commercial activities. They have supported efforts by the U.S. Forest Service to protect the roadless areas in these forests. She listed the communities where there were hearings: Anchorage, Girdwood, Seward, Cordova, Sitka, Ketchikan, Juneau, Yakutat, Kake, Tenakee, Hoonah, Petersberg, Thorn Bay, Craig, Angoon, Gustavus, and Wrangell. Over 1,000 people attended those hearings and 62 percent testified in support of including the Chugach and the Tongass. MS. SCHRADER said you could see proof of why so many people are concerned about building roads when looking at Washington state and the collateral damage that roads in their national forests have caused - landslides, damage to salmon streams, problems with game poaching, and increased risks of human caused fires. She concluded by asking the committee to reconsider her information and not support the resolution. MR. DARRELL THOMAS, Aide to Senator Taylor, supported HJR 6 saying, "The Southeast timber industry has suffered blow after blow in the past few years dealt by the federal government. These blows were fatal to two pulp mills, both major employers of Southeast Alaska." He said that there are only a couple of saw mills operating today and the loss of jobs has resulted in severe negative economic impacts to much of Southeast Alaska. "The Roadless Area Conservation Rule would deliver the final blow to an entire way of life for thousands of people. Without roads, they have no access to schools, stores, or even medical attention." CHAIRMAN TORGERSON said he had put together amendment #1 which recognizes the President has taken an action to delay the Roadless Policy for 60 days. SENATOR HALFORD moved to insert amendment #1 on page 3, line 20. It reads, "and WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature expresses its appreciation of the recent temporary delay for 60 days of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule;". SENATOR ELTON asked if the sponsor of the resolution supported the resolution. Representative Wilson said that she didn't have a problem with it. There were no objections and the amendment was adopted. SENATOR ELTON moved amendment #2 on page 1, line 8 to delete "the 25 percent". The reason is that last October Congress passed and the President signed an alternative way to the 25 percent process. The alternative ways allow communities in the Tongass to average the high three of the last 15 years receipts. He thought most communities in Southeast Alaska would use that method because it would bring in a lot more money to them. Representative Wilson said she didn't object to the motion. There were no further objections and the amendment was adopted. SENATOR HALFORD moved to pass SCS CSHJR 6 from committee with individual recommendations. SENATOR ELTON objected to say that he is very conflicted about this resolution. He does not read the provisions of ANILCA the same way the sponsor does. He said in 1976 as editor of the Juneau Empire, he began writing articles to encourage the process of planning in the Tongass National Forest. Most of the decisions that were made were by politics and not necessarily by good management policy which bothered him. He said we had come a long way since then. If he had written a way of handling federal management decisions in the Tongass, he would have ended up with a process remarkably similar to the TLMP process. He feels the same now that 150 - 200 million board feet to be cut per year was a good number for the Tongass - a significant drop from the existing cut. They came up with "a process that was a wrenching divisive process that eventually led to the TLMP process and through various amendments to the TLMP process, to a cut figure in the neighborhood of 150 million board feet, right where I wanted to be 10 years ago." He said he is bothered by a process that leads to an executive order by any president that leads us to something that abrogates the TLMP process that was very painful. He didn't know how he was going to vote on this resolution when it reached the floor. SENATOR ELTON told Chairman Torgerson that he appreciated the way he had run the meeting on this issue that has divided people rather than bringing them together. There was no further discussion or objection and the bill passed out of committee.