Sponsor Statement for SB 64

Shuyak Island State Park

I introduced SB 64 at the request of Mayor Jerome Selby and the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly. It presents one of the final actions of a long and complex effort by state and federal authorities and locally affected municipalities to compensate for the effects of the Valdez oil spill. The bill adds specific land and water areas to the Shuyak State Park. Shuyak Island was the first part of the borough that was heavily impacted by the westward streaming oil patches and tar balls from the 1989 accident.

The two large land owners on Shuyak Island are the state and the Kodiak Island Borough. Previous litigation had imposed management restrictions that required the state to maintain wildlife habitat and public recreation values while the borough was partially prohibited from commercial or industrial uses on its lands. In 1984 the Shuyak State Park was established from part of the state's holdings to protect the area's fish and wildlife habitat and public recreation opportunities, while maintaining customary hunting and fishing uses.

One of the provisions of the spill settlement was the establishment of a joint federal and state council to manage remediation and recovery efforts. These responsibilities include the replacement of lost fish and wildlife habitat with the acquisition and protection of other high value habitat. It is for this purpose that the Oil Spill Trustee Council selected the borough's Shuyak Island lands and purchased them in 1996. The final part of this effort is the consolidation of the lands under the protective management of the Shuyak State Park.

SB 62 completes the transaction by formally incorporating all state lands on the island into the Shuyak Island State Park. The expanded park retains the management goals, purposes, and allowed uses of the original park.