|
Many ANILCA issues cut across or transcend the mandates and
responsibilities of individual state agencies. The
statewide ANILCA Implementation Program office, housed within OPMP, is responsible
for coordinating State agency participation in day-to-day ANILCA implementation.
Among other tasks, the ANILCA office coordinates state participation in the
development and review draft and final plans, regulations and policy documents
that affect federal conservation system units (CSUs) in Alaska. The State engages
with federal agencies in a variety of ways:
Formal Reviews. When draft ANILCA documents and proposals
are released for general public review by the issuing federal
agency, the state's ANILCA office solicits and collects individual
state agency comments and consolidates them with any generic
issues previously identified. The ANILCA office works with
affected state agencies to resolve any inconsistencies so that
the state speaks with one voice. Correspondence Archive
offers formal state comments on ANILCA-related subjects dating
back to January 2000.
Informal Reviews. The ANILCA office also coordinates
informal reviews of selected documents when mutually beneficial
to both the State and federal agency. Such reviews work well
to identify and eliminate jurisdictional issues that can easily
be resolved informally, and gives all parties a "heads up"
about more difficult issues. The scope and participation of
such in-house reviews is defined on a case-by-case basis.
Issue Work. In addition to review of specific federal
initiatives, the State encourages federal agencies to bring
concerns and issues to the table before formulating a response
plan to ensure that the issues and context are appropriately
defined, all available authorities and data are considered,
and proposed response measures are based on solid information
with reasonable justification. |
