The Haines Borough Assembly voted 5-1 to include Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council management recommendations for borough staff to overlay when it considers amendments to the commercial heliski terrain map.
Members of the parks and recreation advisory committee and the tourism advisory board voted 6-5 at a joint meeting earlier this year to strike the language from the draft ordinance.
The goat council recommends helicopters stay 1,500 feet away to avoid disturbing mountain goats.
Tour operator Scott Sundberg told the assembly that the language in the ordinance is redundant because the Alaska Department of Fish and Game already considers the council’s data when it makes recommendations for selecting new terrain.
Fish and Game recently released a study outlining potential critical goat habitat.
Sundberg said if that buffer was applied to all the potential habitat area it would reduce allowed heliski terrain by 50 to 70 percent and that the assembly should keep that in mind when it makes decisions.
Assembly member Tom Morphet said they don’t lose anything by incorporating the goat council’s recommendations.
“It’s a scientific group,” Morphet said. “The more information we can get, the better off we’ll be.”
Alaska Department of Fish and Game area sport fish biologist Rich Chapell is also on the parks and rec committee. He voted to keep the language at the joint meeting. He said he’s glad the assembly voted to include the language in the local ordinance because Fish and Game might not have time to thoroughly review the terrain if proposals come in at the last minute.
“If that happens in May and (Fish and Game) is only given 30 days to respond, there’s a good chance they won’t have time to do that review. The agency is pretty busy during the summertime.”
The assembly will consider the 2016 heliski map proposals and recommendations at a committee of the whole meeting on Nov. 27.