Forestry and salmon: a new law protects salmon streams from nearby logging.

• Author: Schmitz, Richard F.
• Position: Alaska's forestry law

A new law protects salmon streams from nearby logging.

There are probably few bills in the Alaska Senate that receive a co-sponsorship from Wrangell Republican Robin Taylor and Rampart Democrat Georgianna Lincoln.

Senate Bill 12 did, however, receive such a bipartisan nod. In fact, it faced only smooth sailing in a sometimes tumultuous legislative session, passing the Senate 20-0 and the House 38-2 before being signed by the governor March 19 and passing as law June 17.

Amazingly, this seemingly noncontroversial action-which gained broad-based support - will regulate logging on private and state land from Ketchikan to Kodiak, with much of the private land held by Native corporations. SB 12 applies only to logging practices; it doesn't affect, for example, forest clearing for a subdivision or a new Borders Books.

Nor does the revised statute apply to federal forestland that, in Southeast at least, is governed by the Tongass Land Management Plan.

The purpose of SB 12 was to reform the Alaska Forest Practices Act, which first became law in 1990. "We were finding in the field we weren't getting certain protections," said Rick Harris, Sealaska Corp.'s senior vice president for natural resources. The concern rested in two areas, mainly: classification of streams and the depth of buffers around those streams.

"Originally, there was a lot of confusion over classification of streams and over what sort of buffers should be required," said Harris.

SB 12, as was the original 1990 act, are both the product of unprecedented cooperation between the logging industry, commercial fishermen and state agencies.

Still, it had become clear changes were needed not too long after the original act passed. In 1996, under Gov. Tony Knowles' first administration, a fisheries forest-working group was established under the Board of Forestry. Its job was to oversee the shortcomings of the original bill, using a strict science-and-technology approach, and then to recommend changes. Those recommendations were spelled out in SB 12.

"Senate Bill 12 is the result of a cooperative effort by forest users to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of the Forest Practices Act and recommend any improvements that would strengthen the protection of Alaska's streams and water quality," wrote Sen. Mackie in the sponsor statement for the bill.

"The committee's two-year study identified several opportunities to improve salmon habitat and water quality. A stakeholders committee then...