306 



Senator Murkowski. There has been a lot of finger-pointing on 

 the Southeast Conference 1 and 2. And I think it was interesting, 

 somebody in the panel indicated — perhaps it was Mr. Griffin — that 

 the directors did not have an opportunity to address the maps and 

 the significance of what the maps meant, and that was designated 

 to administrative personnel or something of that nature. 



Is that correct, Mr. Griffin? 



Mr. Griffin. Yes. I have been told by those members who were 

 on the board — I was not on the board for Southeast Conference pro- 

 posal 1. The members that were indicated to me that they had not 

 seen maps prior to voting. 



Senator Murkowski. It is unfortunate that the press is not here, 

 because the public in Alaska will have to rely on the television, 

 which is all right with me. 



But to go back in retrospect, where we ran into a problem when 

 we were negotiating with the House was over what the intent of 

 the Southeast Conference was towards land designation, because, 

 in spite of what you might think, once we permanentize land desig- 

 nation in an agreement, that is just what we are doing. 



And Mr. Lindh, the LUD-II designation means different things to 

 different people. I am reading from the definition here of the land 

 management plan, the definition of LUD-II under the designation, 

 the purpose: "Areas allocated to LUD-II are to be managed in a 

 roadless state, to retain their wild land character. But this would 

 permit wildlife, fish habitat improvement, and primitive recreation 

 facility development." 



It further says: "Roads will not be built except to serve author- 

 ized activities, such as mining, power, water development, aquacul- 

 ture development, transportation needs determined by the State of 

 Alaska, and vital forest transportation linkage." 



One can get into the use of snowmobiles, airplanes on fresh 

 water may be permitted, and so forth. 



We wanted to make very sure of what the interpretation of the 

 Southeast Conference was towards the designation of this, because 

 we were very concerned that an administrator — and we have all 

 had experience with administrators — would read this to mean man- 

 aged in a roadless state and retain the wild land character. 



It just depends on how broad you want to interpret it, and we 

 felt — and we have been chastised by various newspapers in Juneau, 

 by various groups in Alaska, for a dramatic change in the interpre- 

 tation. I can assure you, speaking as one who had the obligation to 

 try and negotiate a resolution, it was an honorable effort to dictate, 

 get a dictate from the Southeast Conference as to what they meant. 



Now, the fact is that the Southeast Conference chose to go into 

 the land matter and indicate changes in the land and an additional 

 10,000 acres is noted, but that was not the purpose we wanted clari- 

 fied. 



So I would like the record to reflect indeed the interpretation 

 which we were after. We got it and that is really all it amounted 

 to. 



I would like to ask Mr. Metcalf and Mr. Anderson if you basical- 

 ly support the concept of wildlife management predator control? I 

 am speaking primarily of reducing the number of wolves so that 

 you can enhance the deer population. 



