The Haines heliskiing map committee convened Monday for another round of reviewing the backcountry site maps where ski-adventure companies drop off and retrieve clients.
Committee members, state biologists and public observers debated – often with an edge to their voices – such topics as bear dens and estrogen cycles, sows, cubs, nannies and kids.
In the end, the committee reviewed seven areas of 14 total requested this year by Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures and Alaska Heliskiing. In question were backcountry areas including near the Davidson Glacier, along the Tsirku River and west of Chilkat Lake.
The committee has until Nov. 30 to recommend whether the Haines Borough should approve the requests by the two companies.
Much of Monday’s meeting centered on an expansion request submitted by Scott Sundberg, co-owner of SEABA. Dubbed “S4,” the tract is located near the Kicking Horse River and Takhin River Valley.
Sundberg said the additional space was needed so returning helicopters would not have to pick up clients on precariously steep slopes in the middle of runs. “Right now, it’s mid-slope,” he said. “There’s nowhere to stop.”
But critics said any expansion of helicopter zones would further encroach on critical bear and mountain goat habitat. “S4” is about 150 feet from where a bear mauled a University of Alaska Southeast professor last spring. But Sundberg said the event had little to do with his business.
“I talked to the students and they’d been in the area for almost three days camping and cooking,” he said, suggesting the helicopter flights were momentary distractions. “We’re typically out of the area by April 1.”
Sundberg, who has a seat on the committee but did not vote on his proposal, minimized wildlife-helicopter contact: “I haven’t had a bear and a client on the same slope ever, not in nearly 20 years of experience.”
Still, others suggested that climate change means bears could emerge from their dens earlier in the year, before the end of skiing season. Some critics want heliskiing companies to stick to higher elevations to avoid encounters.
“Just one day of contact can cause a bear to abandon its den or goats to abandon the area. There can be consequences,” said Eric Holle, president of Lynn Canal Conservation. “You’ve got a choice: you can increase the length of the run and accommodate clients while endangering wildlife, or you can just tell clients you’re not going to do the run.”
Both Sundberg and Sean Brownell, owner of Alaska Heliskiing, questioned the models that Alaska Department of Fish and Game were using to complete preliminary studies of wildlife numbers and habitat due to be finished next spring.
“The goat-bear model is hypothetical,” said Brownell, a committee member who serves as the heliskiing industry representative. “They’re areas that bears are likely to be. The real ones aren’t represented in the model. That will take more observation.”
Stephanie Sell, with the ADFG’s Division of Wildlife Conservation, who attended the meeting via telephone, shot back: “We’re using collar information from 60 goats to build those models, and the bear models are being devised from known bear dens. We’re not just pulling this out of thin air.”
Countered Sundberg: “We’re not going to be able to stay away from every goat out there. Seventeen years this has gone on. The populations are stable. We do a good job watching out for wildlife.”
Even the occasional fly-by is not life-threatening, he said. “These goats have learned. They stay comfortable,” he said. “They know the helicopters are not going to hurt them.”
He said the ongoing discussion of bear and goat data was not moving forward. “We’re just kicking the ball around.”
But Sell wasn’t done. She said the department had been studying goats for a long time. “They’re not habituated to helicopters just because they don’t move.”
Sundberg suggested the deadline for helicopters to leave the area remain at April 1 and the committee voted 3-1 to approve the “S4” expansion with an April 1 exit deadline. Others at the meeting supported a March 15 exit. Committee chair Ron Jackson voted against the motion.
The committee set a meeting for Nov. 29 to wrap up loose ends.
Their findings are scheduled to be presented to borough manager Bill Seward by Nov. 30. He will then make his own recommendations to the borough assembly in early December, with the assembly having the final say.
Much of Monday involved redrawing erroneous boundary maps that were last drawn in 2013.
Near the night’s end, Sundberg called heliskiing a critical cog of the Haines area’s winter economy, bringing millions of dollars of revenue and jobs. “You could destroy this industry. This is where I see this headed. This industry is important to the Haines winter economy and the public needs to be educated on that.”
Holle gave no ground. “We can go forward and choose to listen to Mr. Sundberg’s biological theories or we can choose to listen to what wildlife professionals have to say.”
Sundberg shifted in his chair. “I’ve been out there 20 years. Don’t worry about me.”