SJR 24 TONGASS LAND MANAGEMENT PLAN CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to order at 3:40 p.m. and announced SJR 24 to be up for consideration. SENATOR JERRY MACKIE, sponsor, said it encourages the U.S. Forest Service to bring the Tongass Land Use Management Plan (TLUMP) to a conclusion and supports a level of timber harvest from the Tongass National Forest sufficient to sustain a forest product industry and prevent further job loss and economic disruption in Southeast Alaska. It also endorses continued oversight by Congress and the Alaska Congressional delegation. SENATOR MACKIE said a number of companies had been adversely affected by a reduced harvest. The Southeast Regional Timber Task Force passed a resolution urging the Federal government to finalize a plan for timber harvest in the Tongass and determined a minimum annual harvest level of 300 million board feet (MMBF) was necessary to reestablish a viable integrated timber industry. Number 79 SENATOR TAYLOR said he had an amendment prepared in conjunction with the Alaska Forest Association that deletes "a harvest level of 300 MMBF be maintained, because any decision to further reduce" and insert, "the United States Forest Service make available an annual amount of at least 300 MMBF of timber that is economical to harvest from the Tongass National Forest with offerings uniformly released throughout each fiscal year, because any record of decision that further reduces". SENATOR MACKIE responded that he didn't pull 300 MMBF out of the sky; it is a number that came from the Governor's Timber Task Force which had representatives from municipalities, industry, and environmental groups - a consensus group. SENATOR TAYLOR explained that the Forest Service cannot control the specific harvest levels. That will depend upon contracts and market conditions and other things. They can control a consistent level of offerings of timber volumes. He said there haven't been consistent offerings. SENATOR MACKIE said he didn't see why the amendment wouldn't work since it further refines the language. SENATOR LINCOLN commented the way she read the amendment is that the annual offering has to be at least 300 MMBF and she understood that out of the 11 communities participating in the Southeast Regional Timber Task Force, eight voted against the resolution supporting the 300 MMBF because they felt it was too high. SENATOR MACKIE said that was news to him and his understanding was that 300 MMBF was a recommendation from the Task Force. Number 172 MR. WALT SHERIDAN, Walt Sheridan and Associates, supported SJR 24. He supported previous testimony and added that it also puts the Alaska State Legislature on record as supporting an annual timber harvest from the Tongass of at least 300 MMBF. He said the Forest Service has been working on the plan for over a decade - a decade during which they have seen the loss of over half of the direct timber jobs in Southeast Alaska. He said this level of harvest was from a vote of 11 - 4 on the Governor's Timber Task Force. It was endorsed by the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the City of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakatla, and Thorne Bay, as well as the industry representatives. Opposition was from the environmental group represented on the Task Force by the Cities of Petersburg and Sitka and a member purporting to represent Tenakee, Elfin Cove, Pelican, Gustavus, Point Baker, and Point Alexander. MR. SHERIDAN said they were asked by environmentalists if they could restructure a timber industry based on value-added processing and produce the same or more jobs on a much smaller timber base. The answer is they should restructure timber industry around value- added processing, but it will be possible only if they can find a way to deal with low quality pulp logs which account for as much as 50% of timber stands on the Tongass. They can't simply log around them taking only the best. To do that would leave a legacy of low grade timber for their children. At the 300 MMBF harvest level there would be sufficient volume to justify the establishment of a minimum facility to process the low grade logs and residual chips. MR. SHERIDAN thought that 300 MMBF could be cut and still preserve the environment and so did the Forest Service according to their draft plan of April 5, 1996 which called for a harvest of 297 MMBF. SENATOR LINCOLN asked him to respond to the Forest Service's concern that they need time to craft a plan that reflects the changes and will be defensible from a legal challenge. MR. SHERIDAN said the draft plan that came out in April was the product of eight or nine years of work and had more scientific review than he had seen any plan the Forest Service had done in the nation. He said they certainly want a plan that is legally defensible, but he has heard of no new science that has become available since April 5 last year when they issued the draft. MR. BERNE MILLER, Executive Director, Southeast Conference, said their mission is to help build strong economies, healthy communities, and a quality environment and he supported SJR 24. In the interests of sustaining a strong regional economy the Conference has repeatedly urged the regional forester to select a TLUMP alternative that does not economically or socially harm Southeast Alaska's people and communities. Last August they advocated that the Forest Service delay completion until defects in their analysis had been corrected. That was before Ketchikan Pulp announced their mill would be closed and there will be social and economic hardship. Until the Forest Service establishes a predictable harvest level through TLUMP it will be impossible to project what kind of timber industry might exist in the region in the future, let alone lay out a business plan for the extensive restructuring obviously needed. For that reason they have changed their position and urge the regional forester to come to a decision based on what his forest supervisors have already placed before him. Number 307 SENATOR LINCOLN asked what his response was to the Task Force vote. MR. MILLER said that you could count the votes or count the communities that were represented which some people have done to suggest that the result was different. SENATOR LINCOLN asked if the 11 - 8 community vote was correct. MR. MILLER said that was correct, but only three of the eight communities were represented. SENATOR LINCOLN asked how the other communities got to vote. MR. MILLER replied that they were supposedly represented. SENATOR LINCOLN asked what size of community he meant when referring to a "small community." MR. MILLER replied Gustavus, Pelican, and communities on that order. He thought around 100 - 200 population. CHAIRMAN HALFORD inserted that they were Gustavus, Pelican, Elfin Cove, Tenakee Springs, Port Alexander, and Kupreanof. SENATOR TAYLOR asked if the Southeast Conference ever entered into a contract with the McDowell Group or got any feel for what the economic impact might be. MR. MILLER replied that they never did. SENATOR TAYLOR asked if there was any socio-impact information within the TLUMP. MR. MILLER answered not beyond what there was before. SENATOR LINCOLN asked if he was involved in the conference when everyone was voting. MR. MILLER said he wasn't present; that the Southeast Conference was not named to that task force. SENATOR MACKIE said there are many differing opinions and views by location and by occupation in Southeast and it is hard to find a balance. MR. BUCK LINDEKUGEL, Conservation Director, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, said for the TLUMP to provide the stability and assurance that everyone hopes for, it must insure that logging occurs only at sustainable levels, that are consistent with maintaining current and future demand for fish, wildlife, and the other renewable forest resources that people depend on here in Southeast. The minimum 300 MMBF logging level called for by this resolution is unsustainable and an environmentally destructive cutting level. SEACC opposes SJR 24. They believe the legislature needs to support communities' efforts in making the transition to a new high value added timber industry that produces the most jobs for board foot cut. The 300 MMBF is the preferred alternative identified in the latest draft of the TLUMP and it places important areas to Southeast Alaska communities, including Cleveland Peninsula, Poison Cove, Upper Tenakee Inlet, Port Hooter, Honker Divide, at serious risk. It also fails to provide for the short and long term protection recommended by the agency's own scientific experts to provide for fish habitat and for healthy and huntable wildlife populations. Of the nearly 5,000 comments received on the draft plan this summer from Alaskans, 57% concluded that the preferred alternative was too biased towards logging and called for additional fish and wildlife resource protection. SENATOR TAYLOR asked for his qualifications. MR. LINDEKUGEL replied that he is an attorney and is a member of the bar in Alaska. He came to Alaska first as a commercial fisherman. SENATOR TAYLOR asked him what qualifications he has to say what a sustainable volume of harvest is. MR. LINDEKUGEL said the whole theme behind the public planning process for forest plans and specific timber sales is for the public to be informed by the Forest Service when they prepare an EIS from a particular proposal. He knows how to read and talk to the people who are the experts providing the basis for his conclusions. He said the overwhelming number of experts have suggested that the Forest Service's proposal from this summer's draft was insufficient to provide for long term protection of fish and wildlife on the Tongass. SENATOR TAYLOR said all of the people working at the Forest Service have spent at the minimum eight or nine years of interdepartmental studies on fish, game, soil stability, types of vegetation, and their conclusion last spring was 297 MMBF. He asked if he disagreed with that and if he did, what experts was he relying on. MR. LINDEKUGEL responded that he believes the Forest Service had the information necessary to make a good decision and didn't follow that information. It's conclusions were unsupported by the information in its planning record. He relies upon the same public documents that everyone else who commented on this plan relied on. Number 463 SENATOR TAYLOR asked him to submit the record of the experts he is relying upon. SENATOR MACKIE asked if there was anything in this resolution that was inconsistent with Governor Knowles Task Force's findings were. MR. LINDEKUGEL responded that it is SEACC's position that it's inappropriate for the legislature to be sticking the target level at 300 MMBF as the State's position. He said the Tongass is a national forest and there are a lot of interests at stake and it's supposed to be managed for all those interests. He said he didn't think the Task Force made any findings. He explained there were two presentations made on December 12 in Ketchikan; one was by the Alaska Forest Association and one was done by Dave Katz, a planner for SEACC. Immediately after that the AFA managed to push for a vote endorsing their models without any response to the information SEACC had presented. He did not think that was the right way to resolve controversial issues. They are trying to engage in a civil debate on very complex issues. SENATOR MACKIE commented that he has listened to both the timber industry and the environmental industry and asked him how they can have a viable timber industry in Southeast Alaska that can contribute to the economy without harvesting timber and asked if he didn't like the 300 number, what number did he like. MR. LINDEKUGEL responded that SEACC had never taken a position against logging on the National Forest. They know it has been a way of life for a long time and they respect that. They think that long- term contracts set up an economy that wasn't sustainable and can no longer compete on the international market. Communities were telling them that there are special areas they didn't want to see clear cut for various reasons. They looked at the science that the Forest Service's own experts were developing and came up with a proposal that focused on small scale, locally owned businesses who would be provided up to 100 MMBF of timber. That's been the guarantee for some time and that is what they adopted. SENATOR MACKIE asked him how there can be a sustainable timber industry if you don't have a level of harvest that can actually make it economically feasible. MR. LINDEKUGEL said they have been talking to small operators on the Tongass and trying to identify the type of processes they can work with. Steve Sealy proposed a small saw mill and drying kiln facility in Tolstoy Bay and SEACC came out publicly supporting that. SENATOR MACKIE said it became noneconomic and so they moved the idea to Ketchikan. MR. LINDEKUGEL said that's the kind of approach they want to do. SENATOR MACKIE asked using the mill in Metlakatla, for instance, was that too big to be a small operation that provides meaningful jobs to communities. MR. LINDEKUGEL replied that they have the timber supply for three years and he understands that that mill is old technology. He said he would not accept supplying wood to a mill that can't compete in today's market just because the mill is there. SENATOR LINCOLN said she appreciates having this dialogue and said she wanted the time to reflect upon the poll they had done of 5,000 comments. MR. LINDEKUGEL explained that the Forest Service had a comment time for their draft plan and there were perhaps 20,000 comments. The questions they were responding to were the forest supervisor's proposal that their preferred alternative was an acceptable way to manage the Tongass into the future. SENATOR LINCOLN asked if the 57% were all from Alaska. He answered that was correct and they wanted less logging than the preferred alternative. SENATOR TAYLOR moved to adopt amendment #1. SENATOR LINCOLN objected; then removed her objection, and amendment #1 was adopted. TAPE 97-21, SIDE B SENATOR LINCOLN asked on page 2, line 8 where it says the TLUMP EIS indicates no viability problem if the term used was "no short term problem." She wanted to know if that was the correct actual terminology or just a synopsis. SENATOR MACKIE said he would have to check to see if that is the actual wording. SENATOR TAYLOR commented that the goshawk was never known to be in this area, although it's one of the most widely ranging hawks in the northern hemisphere. He said he knew of no species that is threatened or has had its viability challenged or threatened on the near term (which includes up to 15 years). SENATOR LINCOLN asked what the EIS actually said, because what he said is different than the information she got. SENATOR LINCOLN moved to adopt amendment #2 deleting the term "viability" and inserting "short term." SENATOR TAYLOR objected. SENATOR MACKIE asked why she thought there would be a long-term problem. SENATOR LINCOLN said she was seeking accuracy and this is an inaccurate quote. SENATOR TAYLOR said that the rest of the sentence said for 10 - 15 years which is considered short term. He thought the amendment was redundant. SENATOR LINCOLN responded that she didn't mind being redundant if it was factual. SENATOR TAYLOR said to him viability meant if there was a breeding population of that species left. CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked for a hand vote. CHAIRMAN HALFORD, SENATORS GREEN, TORGERSON, and TAYLOR voted no; SENATOR LINCOLN voted yes; and the amendment failed. SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass CSSJR 24(RES) with individual recommendations. SENATOR LINCOLN said that Senator Murkowski announced a couple of days ago the Forest Service has a commitment for the completion of TLUMP by June 20 and thought the committee might want to use June 20 in the resolution. SENATOR MACKIE said he was willing to work with her on that issue. There were no objections and it was so ordered.