I have witnessed first-hand the result of the University of Alaska’s timber removal operations at Icy Bay, north and west of Yakutat: A once pristine coastal rainforest transformed into an industrial wasteland. Logging practices where the “big timber” was exported out in the round and the rest of the forest was laid to waste. Cut and run.
Stewardship which resulted in a twisted wasteland of clear-cut, littered with abandoned trailers and rusted logging machinery. Cut-and-run stacks of rotting logs somehow missed the boat to Asia. Cut and run – I wonder if the UA scholars make the connection of the money train from scholarship to clear-cut? Maybe the UA land office should show students standing on a stump in the middle of a twisted wasteland instead of grinning in front of the Eiffel Tower?
UA, you have the option to be a true steward of your land and develop a sustainable and cultural plan for your inholdings. Selectively cut your land and encourage the community of Haines to use your timber for local use. Laying waste to the forest by creaming the big trees for the export market is dark-age thinking. Show some progressive thought and innovation and make us people of Haines proud of you.
Tom Faverty