{"id":47677,"date":"2019-05-09T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/frank-murkowski-has-a-vision-for-southeast-it-includes-roads-and-timber\/"},"modified":"2019-05-11T18:35:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T02:35:18","slug":"frank-murkowski-has-a-vision-for-southeast-it-includes-roads-and-timber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/frank-murkowski-has-a-vision-for-southeast-it-includes-roads-and-timber\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Murkowski has a vision for Southeast. It includes roads and timber"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n40VUE7PRjk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Thirteen years after his time as Alaska&rsquo;s governor, Frank Murkowski still has some unfinished business.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>In an interview with the Empire, Murkowski explained that while he was governor, the United States Department of Agriculture&rsquo;s Forest Service and the State of Alaska entered into an agreement to build roads through federal lands in Southeast Alaska. That agreement, detailed in a memorandum of understanding, laid out a plan to build roads that would connect communities, shorten ferry trips and even lead to Canada.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>There were and still are multiple roadblocks to making that plan a reality, both Murkowski and his former Chief of Staff Jim Clark explained Thursday. The 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits road building on protected National Forest land, is the main one. After a request from former Gov. Bill Walker, the Forest Service is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/endless-roadless-forest-service-tries-again-to-settle-tongass-development-issues\/\" target=\"_blank\">examining the possibility<\/a> of having an Alaska-specific exemption from the Roadless Rule that could allow for the construction of roads and timber operations in the Tongass National Forest.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/land-swap-to-lead-to-logging-in-southeast\/\" target=\"_blank\">Land swap to lead to logging in Southeast<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Murkowski, 86, said he&rsquo;s meeting with leaders throughout the state, including Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Commissioner John MacKinnon and Ben Stevens, a policy advisor to current Gov. Mike Dunleavy, to talk about the importance of building roads in Southeast.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not retained by anybody, I do this on my own,&rdquo; Murkowski said. &ldquo;My interest is expanding Alaska&rsquo;s resource development. Without a strong economy, the state can&rsquo;t exist. That&rsquo;s why we are in trouble now, because we depended on one source of revenue.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Former Gov. Frank Murkowski speaks on a range of subjects during an interview with the Juneau Empire on Thursday, May 9, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1-640x427.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/16773657_web1_190509Murkowski1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Former Gov. Frank Murkowski speaks on a range of subjects during an interview with the Juneau Empire on Thursday, May 9, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t<p>As Murkowski, who was a U.S. senator from 1981-2002 and served as Alaska&rsquo;s eighth governor from 2002-2006, watched the current legislative session, he started thinking more about this plan. In particular, talks about the future of the Alaska Marine Highway System <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/frank-murkowski-heres-how-to-fix-the-alaska-marine-highway-system\/\" target=\"_blank\">got him thinking<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Dunleavy has proposed massive cuts to the ferry system, including a proposal to stop ferry service at the beginning of October for the winter, to help balance the state&rsquo;s budget. The Alaska House&rsquo;s budget proposal cuts about $10 million compared to the Senate&rsquo;s $44 million cut and the governor&rsquo;s proposed cut of about $98 million. Building more roads and reducing the length of ferry runs would make the system more efficient, Murkowski said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;While it isn&rsquo;t going to necessarily address the immediate cash flow problem associated with the ferry,&rdquo; Murkowski said, &ldquo;its value is planning a future objective of roading in Alaska is what this thing is all basically about.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/as-final-budget-decisions-approach-ferry-supporters-flood-capitol-steps\/\" target=\"_blank\">As final budget decisions approach, ferry supporters flood Capitol steps<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>The plan of building these roads in Southeast is still only a general one. There&rsquo;s not a current cost estimate, Clark said, and they haven&rsquo;t heard back from British Columbia officials about whether there would be roads built on the Canadian side for Alaska&rsquo;s roads to meet up with.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Murkowski wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recently asking for a complete exception from the Roadless Rule. In the letter, Murkowski wrote that anything but a total exception from the rule would be a disservice to resource development in the region, including timber, mining, geothermal and hydroelectric development.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>He&rsquo;s particularly interested in reviving timber industry in the area after many pulp mills and timber projects went under in the early 2000s. Timber, Murkowski believes, is a reliable and renewable resource that can bring jobs and and economic boost to the region.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/state-considers-adding-additional-terminal-in-juneau-for-new-ferries\/\" target=\"_blank\">State considers adding additional terminal in Juneau for new ferries<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Environmental groups near and far <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/court-invalidates-four-timber-sales-in-tongass-national-forest\/\" target=\"_blank\">have pushed back<\/a> against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/environmental-groups-object-to-prince-of-wales-timber-sale\/\" target=\"_blank\">proposed timber sales<\/a> in Southeast Alaska in recent years. Just this week, eight conservation organizations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/environmental-orgs-sue-forest-service-over-mammoth-southeast-timber-sale\/\" target=\"_blank\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the Forest Service over a large proposed timber sale on Prince of Wales Island. Murkowski said he believes Outside interests, including national environmental organizations, have gotten too involved in Alaska issues.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;The environmental groups are using Alaska as a poster child for expanding their base, generating revenue,&rdquo; Murkowski said, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;re far away and people can&rsquo;t objectively necessarily evaluate and we have such a huge federal ownership that Alaska belongs to everybody. Who owns Alaska? At times, we wonder.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>The federal government and Forest Service own nearly 17 million of Southeast Alaska&rsquo;s 21 million acres, Murkowski said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>In 2011, the state filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service seeking to overturn the Roadless Rule. That litigation is ongoing, Murkowski said, and he feels the Dunleavy administration is on his side. Clark said Murkowski&rsquo;s commitment, even at the age of 86, is admirable and that Murkowski is always busy.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;We are constantly in touch, constantly interested in these issues,&rdquo; Clark said. &ldquo;Why? Because he grew up in Alaska and spent 22 years in the Senate, and this one is, as he said, unfinished business from our administration.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><hr \/><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><b>\u2022 Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.<\/b><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><hr \/><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many roadblocks in the way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":47678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":11,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4],"tags":[79,253,597,230,319],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-47677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home2","category-news","tag-alaska-marine-highway","tag-environment","tag-ferry","tag-state-news","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47677"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=47677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}