Heli-tours at Meade
up for comment

By Jessica Edwards

Haines Borough residents next week get an opportunity to comment on a proposal by Temsco Helicopters to make 2,800 more tour landings each summer on the Meade Glacier, located in borough boundaries at the Katzehin Valley.

Public comment on an environmental assessment of Temsco’s proposal started Jan. 27 and runs through Feb. 27. A meeting will be held 6 p.m. Feb. 20 at the senior center.

Copies of the document and additional information about Temsco’s proposal are available by calling Mike Driscoll at the U.S. Forest Service’s Juneau Ranger District at 907-789-6282 or emailing mdriscoll@fs.fed.us.

Written comments are more completely expressed in the final document than verbal testimony, preparers said. After comments are incorporated, the Forest Service will decide on Temsco’s proposal, Driscoll said.

Jeff Boyce of Meridian Environmental, the company preparing the environmental study for the Forest Service on Temsco’s behalf, said the document identifies community concerns expressed during the first public comment period and crafts alternatives.

“I think we’ve offered a fairly wide range of alternatives,” he said.

Temsco is seeking to transfer 2,800 landings it was permitted on the West Creek Glacier on Bureau of Land Management lands in the Skagway Borough to the Meade Glacier, managed by the Forest Service. Melting of the West Creek Glacier has made it unsafe for landing helicopters.

According to the EA, Temsco landings on the West Creek Glacier decreased to 230 in 2008 from 1,234 in 2002. Landings on the Meade increased from 850 in 2002 to 1,920 in 2008.

Under a 1996 permitting document, the Forest Service allowed 1,100 landings on the Meade. The agency has explained that exceeding permit numbers as a choice it made to administer the permit according to total landings allowed on its lands.

Temsco is currently permitted a maximum of 4,006 landings on Forest Service land in what is termed the Skagway Icefield.

If its request to transfer 2,800 landings from BLM land is approved, Temsco landings on the Meade could more than double over current rates.

Meridian’s assessment says the company would bring up to 22 people in four helicopters to land on the Meade Glacier seven days a week between 8:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., with a maximum of 52 landings per day.

The company flies to the Meade Glacier along three routes, alternating with weather conditions.

The preferred, high-elevation route hugs the east side of Taiya Inlet, cutting east up the Kasidaya Creek drainage to the Meade. A second, high-elevation route cuts east up Dayebas Creek.

The company’s least preferred route, used when weather conditions limit visibility through other routes, takes helicopters up the mouth of the Katzehin River to the Meade. The route is longer and flies within three miles of Haines, close to Battery Point State Park.

The EA says based on conversations with Temsco, the company is able to use the preferred route about 40 percent of the time, with the other 60 percent divided between the second and third alternatives.

The Forest Service received 17  written comments, mostly from Haines residents, on Temsco’s proposal during a public comment period ending June 12. The EA characterizes 16 comments as opposed to adding landings to the Meade, and one in support.

Concerns voiced in the letters range from noise impacts to Haines residents and recreationists of increased flights up the mouth of the Katzehin, increased disturbance to mountain goats and other wildlife, disturbance to hunting and subsistence activities, and Forest Service administration of the special use permit giving Temsco discretion in allocating landings between glaciers.

Not addressed in the EA is an unresolved jurisdiction dispute between the Haines Borough, Temsco and the Forest Service about conditions of the company’s landing within borough boundaries, and concerns about increased helicopter flights originating in Haines resulting from the proposed action.

Meridian said the EA did not address the jurisdiction dispute because the parties were working to resolve it, and said aircraft taking off from the Haines airport were outside the scope of the report.

Meridian outlines five alternatives in the EA to address the other concerns, ranging from an alternative allowing for no additional landings to seasonal restrictions to graduated additional landings over several years.

Seasonal restrictions for Meade landings would mean the 2,800 additional landings would occur between June 15 and September 15 to protect spring mountain goat kidding and fall hunting. A no-fly zone would be established south of the Katzehin River.

Another alternative would distribute 2,800 additional landings among several glaciers on Forest Service land, so that 2,400 additional landings would be allowed on the Meade Glacier and 400 spread over other glaciers.

The EA says Temsco could increase each limit a maximum of 10 percent to give flexibility for weather conditions, not to exceed 6,806 landings for the season.

The fifth alternative is to increase landings at the Meade progressively over the course of four years while monitoring effects on wildlife, recreationists and Haines residents.

Under a fifth alternative, landings on the Meade would be added gradually each year as data about flight paths and wildlife impacts were collected. Temsco would be granted 1,000 additional landings on the Meade the first year, 1,000 the second year, 500 the third, and 300 in year four.

 

Data would be collected according to a comprehensive monitoring plan designed by the Department of Fish and Game, the Forest Service, and Temsco. “This data would allow the Forest Service to understand what proportion of flights to the Meade Glacier follow a route past Haines and Battery Point State Park.”