Senate Committee on
Environment & Public Works
Subcommittee on Fisheries,
Wildlife, and Water
10:00 am Tuesday, March 18
Hearing Room (SD-406)
Hearing on FY04 USF&WS budget
Witness: Steven
Williams, Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Williams, for coming this morning. I am looking forward with great interest to your comments on the Fiscal Year 2004 budget of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
As you
know, the activities of the Fish & Wildlife Service are important to all
residents of Alaska, and often become highly controversial, as the Service
struggles to balance the variety of interests it must serve.
Mr.
Chairman, you may recall that my State of Alaska is one of those western States
that is dominated by a pattern of Federal land ownership which makes doing
business a very different experience than in States that are dominated by
privately held lands. The Federal
government owns 65% of the land mass of the State of Alaska – a figure equaled
only by your own State of Idaho and exceeded only by Nevada.
Among other elements, Alaska has
the sometimes dubious distinction of hosting fully 88% of the total acreage of
the National Wildlife Refuge System. We
have one refuge – the Yukon Delta – which is the size of the State of
Maine. Although we have only 4% of the
Refuge System’s more than 500 components, we have more than 88% of the total
acreage. In fact, by the time all land
conveyances under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act are complete, the Refuge
system will own more than one-fifth of my State – more than 120,000 square
miles of land – equal to the entire State of New Mexico.
The Service’s influence on
Alaska does not stop with its management of Refuges, of course. It is intimately involved with the day to
day lives of Alaskans as it manages subsistence fishing and hunting activities
under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Its involvement in the land-use permitting
process is one of the keys to whether Alaska will ever enjoy the
benefits of efficient transportation, energy distribution, and communications
systems. In short, it has a very
significant effect on the ability of individual Alaskans to earn their
livelihoods from one day to the next, and its impact can run the gamut from a
soft pat to a harsh blow.
Finally, let me note that I
understand you have recently named Mr. Rowan Gould to be the new director of
the Alaska region. I look forward to
meeting him in a few days, and to working with you both in the months
ahead.