An Act adding certain state-owned land and water to the Kenai River Special Management Area; relating to the mineral estate of the state-owned land and water in the Kenai River Special Management Area; amending the qualifications for members of the Kenai River Special Management Area advisory board; and providing for an effective date.

To provide the protection and management of the Kenai River system called for in the comprehensive management plan, certain state-owned land must be Legislatively added to the boundary of the Kenai River Special Management Area (KRSMA). KRSMA is managed as a unit of the Alaska State Parks system in the Department of Natural Resource under AS 41.21.500.

The lands that Senate Bill 190 will add to the Kenai River Special Management Area are primarily the 536 acres acquired as habitat and recreation lands under funds from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill settlement. There are also a few isolated tracts of state land that had been overlooked during the initial 1984 KRSMA legislation.

This bill also changes the structure of the KRSMA advisory board. Originally representatives from state and federal agencies could be appointed to the board. SB 190 changes AS 41.21.510(b) so members of user groups, resident property owners and municipalities make up the voting members of the advisory board, and those members from state or federal agencies will be ex officio.

Existing park staff assigned to the Kenai River Special Management Area is adequate to cover additional management responsibilities and there are no new facilities proposed for these additional lands.

# # #

27 Viewer(s)