Court Opinion

ID: 9600461
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:27:30.879037+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:27.969440
License: Public Domain

RABINOWITZ, Justice,
dissenting.-
I. Definition of Sustained Yield.
The basic issue at the trial in the superior court was whether the contract volume of 10.2 mmbf was arrived at in violation of Alaska constitutional and statutory requirements that the timber be harvested on a sustained yield basis. The majority notes its agreement with SEACC’s contention that AS 41.17.950(14), which permits harvesting resulting in a declining yield over a rotation period, must be construed narrowly to avoid a conflict with article VIII, section 4 of the Alaska Constitution and AS 38.04.-910(10). I agree with the court’s adoption of SEACC’s position here and note that the superior court finding no. 49, as well as the interpretation of “sustained yield” followed by the Department of Natural Resources [DNR] in reaching its decision as to the “allowable cut,” conflict with our interpretation of the “sustained yield” principle.
Although the decisional document accompanying DNR’s determination to enter into the contract challenged by SEACC does not explicitly define “sustained yield,” testimony elicited from Geoffrey Haynes, Deputy Commissioner of the DNR, indicates that the agency’s interpretation of the principle was directly antithetical to that proposed by SEACC and adhered to in the draft. He stated that:
[A]s far as our administrative interpretation .. . the non-declining yield concept was not applicable to sustained yield and does not have to be used in the calculation of any allowable cut.
Mr. Haynes then testified that this understanding of the agency’s mandate directly affected its decision to market the quantity of timber sold to Schnabel under the disputed contract:
In this case, we have a fifteen-year contract with the Schnabel Lumber Company. Rotation period, I believe, up there is a hundred years. That means we are only committing fifteen years of the timber in that area.

And the provisions in the contract are protective of other resources, as well as the flexibility we have administrative[ly] at the end of that fifteen-year period — or twenty-five-year period if it goes that long, to re-determine any kind of volumes that will be necessary if timber harvesting, in fact, were to occur there for the remaining seventy-five years.
I read note 12 of the court’s opinion as rejecting the agency’s assumption that a declining yield during a rotation period is acceptable. In so doing, the majority in effect invalidates the methodological approach used by the agency in determining the allowable cut in the Haines area for purposes of the Schnabel contract. In my view, this mandates a remand to the de*555partment for redetermination in light of an appropriate construction of “sustained yield.”1
II. Allowable Cut Calculation — Timber Base.
In my opinion SEACC persuasively contends that the allowable cut calculation principally relied upon by the DNR in negotiating the Schnabel contract failed to reflect the land use guidelines set out in the Haines Land Use Plan. There is no dispute that the December 1978 calculation predated adoption of the final plan in June 1979 and did not reflect changes made in land classification by the latter.2 Mr. Saupe, who prepared the calculation, admitted that such a revision would have been appropriate.
The superior court rejected this argument (as does the majority) by pointing out that the total harvestable acreage figure used by Saupe was less than that set forth in the final Plan. However, the “total harvesta-ble acreage figure” set out in the Plan included thousands of acres which in fact are not open to immediate logging. They are included in the total because they may be opened up in the future, but at present they are inaccessible and it is apparent that they may remain so perpetually.3 For purposes of the Schnabel contract, these acres should therefore not have been treated as if the timber resources they contain will be *556available to satisfy sustained yield requirements.4
A limited comparison of the raw totals of harvestable acreage used by Saupe and proposed in the Plan fails to do justice to the precision with which Saupe made his allowable cut calculation. I do not think that one can summarily conclude that his estimate would not have been affected by the 1979 proposed withdrawals. In failing to consider the withdrawals of acreage from commercial logging effected by the 1979 Plan before entering into the Schnabel contract, and neglecting to revise its allowable cut figures,5 it is my view that the agency clearly ignored an important factor in reaching its decision regarding permissible levels of timber harvesting in the Haines area. Thus, its decision was arbitrary, and should be remanded for a redetermination. State v. 0.644 Acres, More or Less, 613 P.2d 829, 833 (Alaska 1980).
III. Allowable Cut Calculation ■ New-Growth Volume.
The DNR is statutorily required to manage state-owned timber land in a manner which ensures “production of a sustained yield of merchantable timber from that area.” AS 41.17.060(c)(4) SEACC correctly questions Saupe’s assumption that a .new growth volume of 7 inches dbh is sufficient to satisfy this requirement. Presently, only timber of 12 inches dbh is merchantable in the Haines area, since this size is necessary for the production of lumber. Trees 7 inches dbh are useful only for pulpwood. Such trees are not merchantable at present in Haines, and Saupe admitted there was no basis for his assumption that they would be in the future. SEACC elicited expert testimony indicating that a pulp mill located in Haines drawing on that forest area alone would be uneconomical.
Even if one assumes that pulp wood would be merchantable in Haines within the next century, it is necessary to reconcile this premise with the dictates of AS 41.17.-060(c)(1), which requires that forest lands be administered “in the manner which best provides for the present needs and preserves the future options of the people of Alaska.” It seems to me that future generations will 'enjoy fewer options if they inherit forests of 7 inches dbh rather than 12 inches dbh timber. Admittedly, the present needs of the Haines population dictate that the sawmill be revitalized. However, SEACC argues that the quantity of timber sold to Schnabel should not be of a magnitude which reduces the quality of timber available to future generations.
I view this question as raising important issues of statutory and constitutional construction, leaving us free to exercise our independent judgment in reviewing the appeal. Implicit in Saupe’s calculation is the premise that the Forest Practices Act and article VIII, § 4 of the Alaska Constitution do not require that future generations be left with timber resources of the quality that are available now.6 In my opinion, this *557result contravenes the purpose of these provisions. Quality as well as quantity of available resources must be considered in determining whether sustained yield requirements have been met. The framers and legislature must have intended that the level of timber available to future generations for sawmills as well as pulp mills be undiminished. Thus, I believe Saupe’s assumption regarding acceptable new growth volume should have been rejected.

. In determining whether the Commissioner of Natural Resources could reasonably have concluded that the subject contract does not violate sustained yield principles it is my view that the “reasonable basis” standard of review is inapplicable. See State v. Aleut Corp., 541 P.2d 730, 736 (Alaska 1975); Mukluk Freight Lines, v. Nabors Alaska Drilling, 516 P.2d 408, 412 (Alaska 1973).

. State Forester Theodore Smith assumed that Saupe’s calculations were based on “total har-vestable acreage” figures set forth in the Plan. He never considered a timber based other than that utilized by Saupe:
Q. You never considered a timber base other than that employed by Mr. Saupe in his allowable cut calculation in your decision to fix the contract volume at 10.2 million board feet?
A. No.
Q. At the time of your decision to recommend to the Commissioner a contract volume at or about the level of ten million feet per year, did you give any consideration to the fact that the timber base had changed as a result of the Haines-Skagway area Land Use Plan adoption in June of 1979?
A. No, the Plan didn’t change the timber base. The Plan was an expression of our management intentions at that time, but neither the Plan nor the classification for retention categories ... remove[s] land from the timber base. The Plan merely says how we intend to manage it.
Q. So that it would make no difference in your view whether the Plan excludes from logging areas which were previously included in the timbér base on which Mr. Saupe’s allowable cut calculation was based?
A. The recommendation to exclude it from logging does not remove it from the timber base. It says you need to do something other for a given period of time in every case before you log it. The question of logging or not logging is a management decision, and as long as it is multiple use management, by its classification, then you can consider logging as one possible use of the area.

.SEACC cites numerous portions of the Plan in support of its contention that over 10,000 of the 70,921 “total harvestable acres” set out in the Plan might be withdrawn from availability for commercial logging. For example, the State neglected to review figures in the draft before publication of the final Plan to reflect the fact that Kicking Horse Valley had been reclassified in the interim, from “forest” to “public recreation” land. The Plan states that retention factors for steep slopes and specific wildlife values in several units have not been calculated for state-selected lands, apd that present harvestable acreage figures will have to be revised accordingly. Logging is prohibited by the Plan within a 500-foot-wide buffer zone adjacent to Chilkat Lake. The Plan indicates that the discovery of a conflict between logging and eagle use ,in the Chilkat Eagle Habitat would reduce harvestable acreage, a result mandated by Governor Hammond’s moratorium. Logging is prohibited for fifteen years in the Pyramid Harbor/Davidson Glacier area to permit assessment of its multiple use potential. With reference to preservation of wildlife habitat, the plan prohibits commercial logging in the Upper Takhin River area and permits it in Murphy Flats only if compatible with moose habitat protection. Land included in Units 2 and 6 should not be logged until studies of its agricultural potential have been completed. Finally, the Board of Regents has conditioned disposal of timber on University land upon approval of its appraised value.

.Forester Smith testified as follows:
Q. Well, in considering logging as a possible use of the area, does a land manager, in calculating the allowable cut, make any allowance for the possibility that lands may be unavailable for harvest, notwithstanding the fact that they contain commercial forest land?
A. Not in computing the allowable annual cut. You would certainly take that into consideration before you sign a contract for a certain amount of timber to be cut and removed.
Q. Why is it important to consider what areas may be unavailable for logging when deciding whether or not to enter into a timber sale contract?
A. Because a contractual relationship is certainly more stringent than a classification action.

. Although Smith testified that such areas need not be excluded from a timber base used in calculating an allowable cut, see supra note 4, that observation was based on the assumption that over-harvesting could be corrected during the 100 year rotation period.

. Governor Jay S. Hammond’s transmittal letter of April 8, 1978, accompanying Sponsor Substitute for Senate Bill No. 59 (a forerunner to the final version which was adopted by the Forest Resources and Practices Act) read in part:
Development of this transmittal letter reflects my wish to limit the language of the Act to essential matters while providing the *557intent behind its provision. I offer the Act and the letter as a package, with the statements of intent in the letter to govern application and interpretation of the Act. The appropriate committees of the legislature are strongly urged to adopt this transmittal letter as the committee report on the bill.

Paragraph (1) recognizes the importance of determining the reforestation capacity of land before timber harvesting. The determination is to be made by the government. This standard is not intended to mandate a non-declining yield type of management, but it does reflect the paramount state interest in having all forest land (unless legitimately converted to another use) continue to produce merchantable timber over the long term.

Paragraph (5) recognizes the fundamental public trust obligation of the state to insure that the capability of the land to produce renewable resources is not impaired. While a particular species of tree or wildlife may have little relative value now, the future may find it suddenly in great demand. If the land is incapable of producing it to the demand level, an important land management option is lost, to the detriment of the public welfare.