SITKA, ALASKA– Sen. Lisa Murkowski took the head of the US
Forest Service to task on Thursday (5-19-11) for his agency’s role in agreeing
to limit development in the Tongass that may require road building. The US
District Court in March vacated the Tongass’s exemption from national roadless
policy. Earlier this month the same court released proposed a settlement
between the Forest Service and the plaintiffs allowing a dozen various projects
to move forward, including Sitka’s Blue Lake hydro expansion.
In a senate appropriations subcommittee hearing on the
Forest Service budget, Sen. Murkowski used her opening remarks to challenge
Forest Service chief Tom Tidwell on the decision to spare only twelve projects
from the Roadless Rule.
“I’m just at a loss as to how you have determined that this
small subsection shall move forward, when we have equal opportunities in some
areas that now, for all intents and purposes, have been put off limits.”
Later, during questioning, Murkowski again picked up the
thread of the proposed settlement. Here’s a brief excerpt of her exchange with
Tidwell.
“Murkowski – Can you give me some kind of understanding as
to why you selected the ones that you did for the carve out, and then left
hanging 150 – or 27 that are actually filed with FERC? What’s the rationale
behind that? Tidwell – The ones that we selected were the ones that we felt had
the most potential to move forward in the near term. And at the same time in
our proposed judgment there isn’t anything to preclude those projects from
being considered in future. Murkowski – Well, the one thing that would preclude
them is that it’s not possible to gain access to them. If you’ve got to build a
hydroelectric site or allow for the transmission lines to be built but only by
using helicopter, that does make the project prohibitive. Tidwell – Well, one
of the things with the 2001 Roadless Rule, because it’s been in a state of flux
for the last ten years is that we have never been able to move forward and use
the exemptions that are in the 2001 rule. And so you’re correct that when it
comes to building roads for timber harvests there are definitely restrictions.
But there are also exemptions that allow us to put in transmission corridors,
that allow us to construct – in my view – these hydroelectric plants. Each one
would have to be looked at on its own merits, without any question that we
would probably require more helicopter access with the transmission corridors,
et cetera.”
Tidwell went on to say that the list of the projects in the
proposed settlement were those that the plaintiffs and the agency agreed had the
best chance of success in the near term.
The lawsuit ending the Tongass roadless exemption was filed
by the Organized Village of Kake against the US Department of Agriculture.
Other parties included the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and the Boat
Company.
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