Cancellation of the Baby Brown Timber sale will set the project back at least a year, foresters said this week.
It’s uncertain whether the lone bidder on the sale, Astoria Forest Products of Astoria, Ore., will bid on it again. The company did not return CVN requests for comment.
“They said to keep in contact with them, but who knows,” forester Greg Palmieri said this week. The family-run operation brought “a lot of professionalism and potential,” he said.
Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andrew Mack cancelled the contract June 22 on a procedural issue, namely that the state had not conducted necessary land use plans for the entire acreage of the sale.
Astoria Forest Products of Oregon purchased the 855-acre parcel for $270,000 in December. The company also leased the Chilkoot Lumber Dock – out of use since 1993 – in March with plans to restore it for lumber export.
The State Division of Forestry, under the Department of Natural Resources, is required to complete a forest land use plan before any sale, but did not complete the plan for all 855 acres of Baby Brown.
Regional forester Tim Dabney said the state’s rationale for completing only part of the land use plan was efficiency.
“It’s more efficient for us to access those farther-reaching harvest units as the road is being constructed rather than flying or walking long distances,” Dabney said. But he said there was a miscommunication from state Division of Forestry Director Chris Maisch’s response to a 2015 appeal on the Baby Brown best interest finding that stated a land use plan should be completed in its entirety before opening of bids.
Lynn Canal Conservation president Eric Holle submitted an appeal of the sale, citing the error, which Mack upheld.
Holle said this is the first appeal that has been upheld in the Haines State Forest, and the first since he started filing similar appeals in 1990.
Holle said that rule is in place to allow the public to weigh in before the sale. Dabney said whether or not land use plans are cut short or fully completed before a timber sale, the public still gets the same opportunities for comment.
Holle said although the state violated procedure, he filed the appeal for economic and environmental reasons.
“At the very least, it buys us some time to further educate politicians and bureaucrats about where the money is going,” Holle said. “It’s also possible the buyer of the sale will get frustrated and go away because we’ll continue throwing roadblocks in front of things like that whenever possible. We’re in it for the long haul.”
Holle said that Lynn Canal Conservation supports small sustainable timber sales that provide local jobs and local products with value-added processing.
Baby Brown would provide few local jobs and leave a clearcut that would pose threats to the Klehini River including changes in stream temperature and sedimentation of salmon spawning beds, Holle said.
Although the sale is cancelled now, it doesn’t stop the state from going through this process again after correctly following procedures.
Dabney said foresters will complete a full land use plan this summer that will be open for public comment after its completion.
After it is adopted, the sale should reopen in the fall.