The state has proposed a timber sale on 1,000 acres of Haines State Forest land in the upper valley, responding to an apparent improvement in the market from a demand for rough sawlogs in China.

“There’s a market developing and there’s interest,” said forester Roy Josephson.

For Lynn Canal Conservation, the scope of the sale has raised concerns about potential impacts to fisheries habitat along the Klehini River and its tributaries. The visual impacts of the cutting – which would be visible between 33 Mile Haines Highway and the border – also have raised questions.

At 20 million board feet of timber, the Baby Brown sale compares to 6.3 million board feet total cut from the forest in the past decade. Under forest regulations, up to 59 million board feet can be cut per decade, but a weak market and low-quality timber here have kept sales at a fraction of that, Josephson said.

Glacier Side 2, a state sale of 3.4 million board feet of timber on 45 acres currently being offered from the Baby Brown area, would be the largest sale from the forest in about 20 years. Two out-of-state companies have expressed interest in it, Josephson said. Native corporation logging elsewhere in Southeast will bring log ships into the region, possibly facilitating sales here, he said.

Josephson said the size of the Baby Brown sale is designed to give a buyer an option to purchase a large volume, but the Baby Brown’s timber is more likely to be sold as a series of smaller sales.

Lynn Canal Conservation President Eric Holle said this week his group is concerned that the state’s required stream buffers won’t be enough to mitigate impacts of such a large sale. “Headwater streams that don’t have fish in them are major contributors to water quality. By impacting those streams, you’re somewhat negating the effects of the buffers,” Holle said in an interview this week.

Cutting timber from what the state describes as an “overmature” forest leads to accelerated river and stream flows that blow out log jams, increase sedimentation and eliminate salmon rearing habitat, Holle said. “Cutting old-growth canopy leads to destruction of fish habitat.”

Salmon are found in four creeks within the proposed logging area – Sarah Creek, Bear Creek, Porcupine Creek and lower Glacier Creek. Logging will change the hydrology of the timbered areas, but won’t necessarily damage fisheries, Josephson said.

A habitat biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is reviewing plans for Baby Brown, he said.

Josephson said clearcuts from the sale would be visible from the road – particularly between 36 Mile and 40 Mile, but he said visual impacts can be mitigated by the state’s design of the sale. “When it’s all cut, it all will be visible, but when you harvest it over time, those impacts are mitigated.”

Holle said 80 percent of the cut would be visible from the road and questioned whether that would be compatible with the Haines Highway’s designation as a National Scenic Byway.

Public comments on the preliminary decision for the sale are due by Feb. 6.

For more information, contact Josephson at 766-2120 or email [email protected].