he state last week adopted a five-year forest management schedule for the Haines State Forest that outlines several proposed timber sales as well as plans for recreational trails and cabins.

The schedule, adopted by the Alaska Division of Forestry on July 26, proposes more than a dozen sales totaling a harvest of 51 million board feet of timber and about 20 miles of new road construction, including a bridge across the Tsirku River, along with maintenance of existing roads.

The adopted schedule is identical to a preliminary scoping document released a few months ago, but it includes more than 30 comments from community members, some of whom voiced support for the schedule’s proposed sales but many of whom said they oppose large clearcuts and logging for industrial export.

Haines state forester Greg Palmieri said the comments “will inform the next steps of the development process for projects such as timber sales or recreation trails/cabins, for example.”

The schedule proposes two large sales along Chilkat Ridge, east of Chilkat Lake, as well as harvests in the Kelsall River watershed, where some local residents and conservation organizations have called for limited development due to concerns about king salmon habitat.

Takshanuk Watershed Council director Derek Poinsette in a letter urged the state not to sell harvests near the Kelsall River or on Chilkat Ridge, citing the “likelihood of ongoing harm to wild fish stocks” and other environmental concerns.

Poinsette said Takshanuk “supports small-scale timber harvest which creates jobs and provides logs for local sawmill operators, firewood, construction and other Chilkat Valley community uses and needs” but that “logs should not be exported from the Haines State Forest via large-scale timber sales,” which “come with long-term negative impacts that must be borne by the local community, while the economic benefits are minimal and short-lived.”

A 2005 count by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game found that 50% of tagged Chilkat kings spawned in the Kelsall River. That stock hit a record low in 2018, when the state Board of Fisheries designated it a stock of concern. King populations across the state have been in decline for over a decade, and biologists suspect a mix of changing marine and freshwater conditions are to blame.

A document submitted by Alaska Department of Fish and Game habitat biologist Bill Kane advised the forestry division to incorporate measures into forest land use plans (FLUPs) to minimize impacts to wildlife, particularly salmon in the Kelsall River watershed.

“We’re doing the best we possibly can to make sure that the impacts aren’t adverse and aren’t negative,” Palmieri told the CVN in May.

The biggest proposed sales in the management schedule are for harvests of about 20 million and 15 million board feet of timber on Chilkat Ridge, slated for 2024 and 2026, respectively.

Those sales, and all that are larger than 10 acres, will be subject to a separate public process through adoption of FLUPs prior to timber harvest.

“Interested public should look for action plans as they are noticed for comments such as a preliminary best interest finding for a proposed timber sale on the HSF,” Palmieri said.

There were two comments expressing support for the schedule’s large sales.

“Developing natural resources in the Chilkat Valley is an essential aspect of resource stewardship,” wrote Robin and Cheryl Stickler. “Stewardship requires active care of our resources to ensure longevity of our forests and watershed populations (flora and fauna), as well provide revenue streams for a thriving economy.”

A handful of residents said they favor the forestry division’s plan for small-scale timber harvests behind the Mosquito Lake Community Center, an area where some see potential for recreational opportunities that could be opened up by logging infrastructure.

That sale — called 4 Winds Opener — is on the schedule for 2024 and “consists of up to five harvest areas totaling 100 acres located on the hillside above the Mosquito Lake Community Center.” A tentative idea that Palmieri and interested residents discussed at a June scoping meeting is someday to install a ski lift on that hillside and turn it into a ski area.

The annual allowable harvest in the Haines State Forest, based on the principle of sustained yield, is 5.88 million board feet.

The state’s sales from 2012 through 2020 were within the “sustained yield” management objective, according to the forestry division.

Combined sales in the new schedule – a total harvest of about 51 million board feet over five years – would exceed the annual allowable harvest by about 20 million board feet, but the document permits overages “for planning purposes and to allow leeway within the DOF’s timber sales program to react to unknown project constraints and market fluctuations.”

Similar to past schedules, the new one involves a mix of large and small timber sales, development of recreation opportunities, continued silvicultural activities like pruning, thinning and cone collection for planting, and road and infrastructure maintenance.

Palmieri said the division’s goal is to achieve balance among all of the forest’s resources and uses in keeping with the Haines State Forest Management Plan adopted in 2002.

Takshanuk Watershed Council director Derek Poinsette encouraged the forest division to work on updating that plan “to account for longer forest regrowth and recovery times, a landscape that has already suffered ecological impairment and damaged fish stocks, as well as the near certainty of unpredictable impacts from current and future climate change.”

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