SB 306-BOARD OF GAME REGULATIONS  8:37:30 AM CHAIR HUGGINS announced SB 306 to be up for consideration. He said this measure empowers the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to more efficiently manage game. SHARON LONG, staff to Senator Huggins, presented the sponsor statement as follows: For those of us who live in Alaska, one of the wonders we enjoy is our wildlife. Our state biologists are charged with the challenging job of managing this resource and today the constitutional mandate for abundance management has been an continues to be a high profile priority. The efforts of the Board of Game and the wildlife biologists are not always popular when protecting our most valuable renewable resources. Wild game represents many things to many people - be it commercial guiding, hunting or simply viewing wildlife. Alaska is unique and every Alaskan and visitor enjoys the gift of this resource. The problem that we face is that we have not allowed our Board of Game to manage the resources and allocate it for what it actually is - and asset. SB 306 will accomplish that by inserting those important words into statute. The language makes it clear to others that it is our asset and we will manage for abundance as promised in the Alaska Constitution. CHAIR HUGGINS asked Mr. Saxby to explain the background on this bill. 8:40:28 AM KEVIN SAXBY, Department of Law (DOL), said the sponsors wanted to make a clear statement in the law about the nature of the action that the Board of Game takes when it regulates in the hopes that would provide some guidance to the public and the lieutenant governor in the future when wildlife related initiatives are filed. 8:41:40 AM SCOTT OGAN, representing himself, said this bill doesn't change existing laws on initiatives, but it will return control of Alaska's game management to the preferential use of Alaskans by Alaskans and for Alaskans without outside special interest influences. He said that the game populations in Alaska are absolutely crashing right now 8:43:00 AM GREG ROCZICKA, representing himself, Bethel, said he was a director of the Natural Resource Program for the Federal Council and spent the last 20 years dealing with resource management issues. He was also a member of the Board of Game for two terms and was here today to support SB 306. He said that Bush Alaska has been a major victim and has actually suffered more than other Alaskans from the initiatives in the past years. 8:44:02 AM SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI joined the committee. CHAIR HUGGINS noted a letter from the Association of Village Council Presidents in support of SB 306. 8:46:00 AM SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI remarked that he had heard this bill potentially blocks the ability to have issues decided on an initiative and asked if that was true. 8:46:33 AM MR. SAXBY responded that the intent behind SB 306 was to make a statement that the lieutenant governor will be able to take this into account when deciding whether some kinds of initiatives should go on the ballot. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if legislative legal had commented on whether or not a state statute could limit a constitutional right bring issues forward on an initiative. MR. SAXBY replied there had been a fair amount of discussion with legislative legal counsel on this bill, but he didn't remember that specific topic coming up. 8:47:40 AM SENATOR GREEN moved to report SB 306 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There were no objections and it was so ordered.