Relating to urging the exclusion of national forests in Alaska from President Clinton's proposal for withdrawal of roadless areas in the national forest system.

Posted: February 15, 2000
Contact: Representative Bill Williams at (907) 465-3424.

House Joint Resolution 54 was introduced to protest yet another politically motivated attack on the working people of Alaska. The President of the United States has proposed policy that would end any further road building in the National Forest system. As Alaska is home to the two largest National Forests in the country and the health and diversity of our economy is directly related to our resource industries, I vehemently object to the inclusion of the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in the proposed plan.

There are several specific reasons for my objections and I will summarize a few in the following paragraphs. First, the policy is illegal. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) specifically prohibits such withdrawals without the expressed direction of Congress. The President and his attorneys are relying on legal semantics to justify their actions. While lawyers can split hairs over wordsmithing, the clear intent of Congress in ANILCA is that the Congress will oversee any further land withdrawal proposals regarding Alaska.

Second, we spent 10 years and over $13,000,000 to create the Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP). This obvious dedication of time, money and public process used to create a plan that would bring "peace in the valley" would be thrown out the window. The TLMP document has already been compromised with Under Secretary Lyons' unilateral TLMP amendment in 1999. This attack is yet another attempt at circumventing proper forest management for the sake of political science and posturing.

Third, we are currently spending time and money creating a plan for the Chugach National Forest. Once again the public process is being followed to produce a plan for the future use of this forest. Of great concern to those who live and work in the Chugach is the spruce bark beetle infestation. This infestation will continue, against the sound forest management opinions of forestry professionals, if the policy is implemented. The roadless policy will trump the public process on the Chugach in the same manner the TLMP was trumped by Under Secretary Lyons' action and will be trumped again by this same roadless policy.

Enough is enough. We, on the Tongass, have compromised during the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990, the TLMP and its revisions and amendments. We have compromised down, down and down again. In fact, it is not a compromise at all. Compromising means both sides give up something. We have given and given and not received. Now the same process is playing out on the Chugach. Why are we even spending the time and money to come up with a plan?

I, like many Alaskans, am frustrated with the level of Federal intervention in our lives. The timber industry had been at the forefront of this intervention during the last decade. We must continue to strongly oppose such Federal actions. I urge your support in sending our message back to Washington, D.C.

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