The University of Alaska Board of Regents has directed staff to proceed with negotiations for a timber sale in the Haines area, with final contract terms expected to come to the board for approval in late July or August. Allowing for permitting and work-plan approval by state regulatory agencies, the earliest timber harvesting could start is 2020.
The regents voted 9-1 at a special meeting June 19 for the university to move to the next step of negotiating the contract terms, price and harvest locations with a potential buyer, which the university has declined to name at this time, citing confidentiality.
The contract terms, and the buyer, will be made public when presented to the board for approval.
The university is considering about 13,000 acres that it owns in the Haines Borough for timber harvesting, but the final sale could cover half that size, according to materials presented to the regents. The parcels consist of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, cottonwood and birch.
“Due to standard requirements for eagle nests, streams and non-timbered areas,” such as wetlands and steep slopes, the total sale acreage could end up as small as 6,500 acres, staff told the regents. The parcels selected for logging will be decided as the contractor surveys the land and starts the permitting process this fall, continuing into next year, the staff presentation explained.
The university lands include large parcels across and west of the Chilkat River from Klukwan and more acreage several miles south. Other, much smaller parcels are scattered around the borough.
The university’s effort is part of a coordinated approach. A January 2018 agreement signed by the university, state Division of Forestry and Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office affirmed their intent to “cooperate … with the goal of offering for sale a combined 10-year supply of timber” in the Haines area. The agencies are working together to provide 150 million board feet of timber, according to backup material presented to the regents.
The collective effort would support “access, staging and marketing” of the separate timber sales, the agreement said.
The Alaska Mental Health Trust owns less than 10 percent of the volume of forested lands in the borough as the university. The trust, which uses its lands statewide to generate revenue for mental health services, has held small timber sales in the area since the mid-1990s and has two sales underway closer to the Canadian border, said Paul Slenkamp, senior resource manager.
If the university proceeds with its sale, and if the trust land office has forested acreage nearby that would make economic sense to offer at the same time, it could participate with its own sale, Slenkamp said.
University President Jim Johnsen told the regents that the school uses revenue from its land development to help pay for a scholarship program; the university press, a nonprofit publisher of books on Alaska and the circumpolar region; the statewide Cooperative Extension Service that offers programs on agriculture, communities, youth and many other programs.
Statewide, the university has about 17,000 acres with marketable timber, Johnsen said. “What little of that we have, we seek to monetize.” Alaska received less land from the federal government than all other land-grant universities, except Delaware, staff told the regents.
The state Division of Forestry intends to provide one-third of the 150 million board feet in the coordinated offering. The state has not yet identified specific units, division director Chris Maisch said June 20. Forestry staff would look for lands near the university’s parcels to boost efficiencies for the logging and transport operations, he explained.
Any state selections would have to go into the division’s five-year timber sale schedule and go through a public-comment process, Maisch said.
The board of regents had postponed their decision on the sale to allow more time for the public to share their views. “We pay serious attention to public comment,” Johnsen told the regents. However, he later added, “We don’t expect that every individual in Haines will celebrate our sale.”
In response to public comments, the university will incorporate several policies into the timber sale contract, including some logs will be offered for Alaska buyers and small mills, and biomass fuel (wood chips) will be available for users in Haines. The university also intends that wood will be available for “unique niche markets,” such as musical instruments.
“We will respond to all the written comments,” Johnsen said.
The university sale is controversial in the Chilkat Valley, especially as some of the land is within the borders of the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. However, when Alaska lawmakers approved the legislation in 1982, they exempted the university’s acreage from the preserve, said University Regent Karen Perdue.
The preserve “is a pretty significant treasure,” Perdue said at the regents’ meeting. About 2,000 acres of the university’s Haines-area lands are within the eagle preserve, Perdue said. “It’s a matter of what is the right balance,” between economic development and wildlife protections, she said.
Regent John Davies said he expects the university will provide a wider buffer than required around eagle trees.
Supporters of the sale cite the jobs it would create, referenced by a comment at the regents’ meeting from Christine Klein, the university’s land management director: “The community has lost jobs for some time now.”
The university said it will participate in what it called the Haines Action Committee — including the borough Mayor and manager, Haines Economic Development Corp., tribal leaders and community members — to share information as the sale proceeds. It does not expect that effort to start up until August.