Logging could begin as soon as June
Oregon company NWFP INC. was the high bidder on the 1,000-acre Baby Brown timber sale 37 miles north of Haines—the largest timber sale in more than 20 years.
The company bid $423,455, well over the $292,499 minimum. It’s owned by Stan Runnels, a former manager at Astoria Timber Products, the sole bidder when the sale first went out to bid in 2016.
“This bid reflects the changing market conditions, I believe,” state forester Greg Palmieri said. “Product markets are typically strongest this time of year, and a capable bidder may take that into consideration when bidding, meaning they anticipate being able to move product to capture value in those early summer markets.”
The operator will be required to build 12 miles of new road to access the timber and install two pre-constructed bridge crossings.
NWFP has five years to complete the contract work from the date of signing, which should occur this month, Palmieri said. Work could begin in June.
The sale, divided into 13 units, consists of an estimated 23.1 million board feet of spruce and hemlock timber on roughly 1,006 acres on the south side of the Klehini River drainage between Porcupine and Jarvis creeks. The allowable harvest methods include selective tree and clear cut.
First put out to bid in 2016, Baby Brown was canceled in June 2017 after Lynn Canal Conservation successfully appealed because the state didn’t create a land use plan for the entire harvest area.
Palmieri said he needed to complete an additional year of fieldwork before a full land use plan was adopted in 2018.
LCC continues to oppose the sale. Executive director Jessica Plachta said clear cuts and logging roads will degrade nearby salmon habitat and that extracting and exporting local timber overseas is short-sighted.
“That forest provides immeasurable value to local people. We shouldn’t be exporting the natural, living wealth of the land,” Plachta said. “Small, local sales for value-added products will garner widespread support from local people, but big raw log export timber sales that endanger our landscape will not.”
Astoria Timber Products, the sole 2016 bidder, recently went out of business because of trade wars with China.
Runnels did not reply to questions by press time.
The second highest bidder was Oakes Logging, a company out of Washington.