2011 Alaska Statutes
Title 41. PUBLIC RESOURCES
Chapter 41.21. PARKS AND RECREATIONAL FACILITIES
Sec. 41.21.506. Comprehensive management plan; regulations.

(a) The commissioner shall develop and adopt a comprehensive management plan for the Kenai River Special Management Area in consultation with the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The plan may include the land adjacent to the rivers described in AS 41.21.502 (a)(1) - (3) whether the land is owned by the state or privately owned and may include other land considered appropriate by the commissioner and the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The commissioner shall periodically review the plan and adopt changes to the plan in consultation with the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

(b) The commissioner shall adopt regulations under AS 44.62 (Administrative Procedure Act) that are necessary to achieve the purposes of AS 41.21.500 - 41.21.514 and to implement the plan adopted under (a) of this section. The regulations must

(1) designate incompatible uses and prohibit or restrict them; and

(2) establish a registration, licensing, or comparable procedure for professional fishing guides and such additional fishing guide controls as the commissioner considers necessary; notwithstanding the requirements established by the commissioner to implement this paragraph, the commissioner shall establish a procedure by which the holder of a valid sport fishing operator license issued under AS 16.40.260 may petition for, and the director of the division of parks, or the director's designee, shall expeditiously issue, a waiver to allow the sport fishing operator license holder to use the services in the Kenai River Special Management Area of a guide licensed under AS 16.40.270 who has not completed the procedures and additional controls that are required by the department under this paragraph; the waiver authorized in this paragraph applies only for the duration of the sport fishing season during which the waiver application is submitted and only if the sport fishing operator license holder

(A) employing the licensed guide has lost the services of a licensed guide because of unforeseen circumstances; and

(B) is unable to hire as a replacement an available licensed guide who has satisfied all the requirements of this paragraph, including those required by regulation.

(c) Until regulations adopted under AS 41.21.500 - 41.21.514 take effect, existing state regulations otherwise applicable to the Kenai River Special Management Area remain in effect.

(d) A regulation adopted under this section applies to land owned by the state but does not apply to land not owned by the state that is located within the boundaries of a municipality unless the regulation has been approved by the municipality.

(e) The provisions of AS 41.21.025 (b) and (c) do not apply to the land and water described in AS 41.21.502 (a).