New forest focus.

• Author: Swagel, Will
• Position: Alaska's Forest Resources and Practices Act of 1990

Made law by the Alaska Legislature in 1990, the Forest Resources and Practices Act contains regulations governing forest uses, from stream protection to timber sales. After five years of experience with the act, its proponents and opponents evaluate its effectiveness in this article.

The vast federal forests of southeast Alaska have been hit for years, not only by the sound of chainsaws, but also by the dissonant arguments of different groups battling for their share of the woods.

But as prime timber gets scarcer in Southeast, as it is throughout the Pacific Northwest, timber companies are looking farther north for opportunities. The northward move is bringing the classic development-versus-preservation argument to forests on the Kenai Peninsula and in the forests between Fairbanks and Tok.

It is also focusing new attention on the Alaska Forest Resources and Practices Act (FRPA) of 1990, a state act governing forest practices on state and private land. The FRPA regulates much of what may be the future expansion of the timber industry - or the survival of it - depending on whom you talk to.

The Law's Intent

The Alaska Forest Resources and Practices Act is a compilation of regulations and standards meant primarily to protect salmon streams from harm by nearby logging. Other provisions regulate a wide range of forest issues, including timber sales.

The act requires that private landowners maintain a 66-foot uncut "buffer" strip next to a fish-bearing, or anadromous, stream. Next to streams on state lands, a 100-foot buffer is required.

But there is a provision in the law allowing timber companies to ask for a variation, which would permit them to take trees out of the buffer strip if it is shown that the trees are not critical to fish habitat. And that's where some of the uncertainty comes from.

In Cordova, from her chair of the habitat committee of the United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA), Riki Ott complains that the variation clause was never meant to be there - the granting of 66-foot buffers instead of 100-foot buffers on private land had itself been the compromise.

Ott says the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) - the lead agency in enforcing the FRPA - has not been giving enough credence to the opinions of the Alaska Departments of Fish and Game (F&G) and Environmental Conservation (DEC). To rectify this situation, UFA wants DNR to pay "due deference" to F&G and DEC. Gov. Tony Knowles' Fisheries Transition Team recommended that the...