Opinion ID: 1359921
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Timber Base

Text: SEACC argues that since Saupe's allowable cut calculation predated the adoption of the Plan, the contract volume fails to incorporate the Plan's land classification regime and site-specific guidelines. According to SEACC, this alleged failure violates 11 AAC 55.030(c). [24] The trial court concluded that the alterations in the Plan's land classifications after Saupe's calculation were not significant, since the plan shows a timber base larger than that used by Saupe. [25] However, SEACC contends that the Plan's site-specific management guidelines take precedence over the Plan's estimated timber base, and that in order for the contract volume to comport with 11 AAC 55.030(c), the Commissioner was required to calculate and take into account specific retention figures based upon those guidelines. Although 11 AAC 55.030(c) requires that timber sales be consistent with the guidelines, no duty to calculate specific retention figures is necessarily required so long as it can be reasonably concluded that the sale will not violate the guidelines. Here the sale volume was consistent with the low end estimates contained in the plan. The evidence suggested that the Commissioner concluded that safeguards built into the contract assured that the harvesting of timber would be consistent with the Plan's site-specific management guidelines. The contract specifically provides that the State may reserve from harvest areas which the State considers necessary in order that biological minimums necessary to maintain fish, wildlife, soils, water or other fundamental renewable resources will be preserved. The contract also expressly recognizes that areas reserved from timber harvest under the Plan are not available for harvest during the term of the contract. The Commissioner could reasonably have concluded that these contractual provisions, taken with the 17,000 acre margin for error indicated by comparison of the Plan's estimated timber base and Saupe's timber base, would permit cutting consistent with the site-specific guidelines of the plan.