Lisa Murkowski

I don't want us to get to the point where this term multiple use is thrown around like we talk about an all of the above energy policy or all of the above except the things that I don't want to include.

I'm just so concerned that within the agency, within the Forest Service we've, kind of, lost the, we lost the initial focus of the Forest Service.

As you know the U.S. Court of Appeals trucked down the decision to exempt the Tongass from the national road less decision.

I think that the Forest Service needs to look at how you might be able to allow for tiny slivers with minimal impact.

I would appreciate it if you would do so quickly because as we go into the fire season if states aren't really sure where they submit their billing you would hate to think that somebody is going to hold back or defer because they're…

I would suggest that instead of proposing to increase funding for programs like land acquisition in the budget proposal that the Forest Service should fund its core priorities.

It's the communities, the former timber communities, that I represent say this to me all the time.

When people are hanging by their fingernails and they're out of, you know, fingernails.

It limits our ability with energy, renewable energy development, access to mineral areas.

These communities are hanging on by their fingernails. I'm not sure Wrangell has any fingernails left.

What I'm hearing from folks there is that the Forest Service is reducing the permit allocations in the Misty Fjords National Monument and Trader's Cove.

We have got to figure out a better path forward than that.

The Forest Service manages some 22 million acres of national forest lands in the Southeastern and South Central part of Alaska.

So you're saying that the reductions will be even greater in 2014.

I think the last thing that the service needs right now is more land to manage.

I think we would all agree that whether it's roads or whether it's a pellet plant, it doesn't do any good to have the infrastructure if we don't have the timber, if we don't have the product that can be used for that pellet plant.

It is adding insult to injury to these communities... it's an economic disaster for so many of them.

We have got to get the harvest up. We know we can do it in compliance with environmental rules.

I continue to remain concerned about the environmental impact statement (EIS) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is working on for the Arctic.

Alaska has consistently expressed their concerns with a federally driven National Ocean Policy.

There are still problems with necessary interagency coordination and the scope and purpose of the document are unclear.

I would certainly hope that Alaska would be excluded when that implementation plan comes out.

Can you confirm that Alaska will be excluded from the National Ocean Policy Implementation Plan?

Alaskans are very supportive of making sure that we have good, reliable data.

This is something that is ongoing. We would like to think that years after the tsunami we are not going to be seeing this impact, but we know in Alaska there is still an incredible amount that is out there.