ate forester Greg Palmieri will meet with residents Wednesday, Aug. 17 at Mosquito Lake Community Center to discuss the state’s plans for logging Ski Hill and to explain the timber sale planning process.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m.
“There’s high interest in information about the sales,” said Deb Stanford, who has lived on Mosquito Lake Road for 38 years.
Because an Aug. 30 deadline looms for public comment on a “best interest finding” of the Ski Hill sale, forester Palmieri said this week he would like to focus the meeting on that topic, but upper valley residents also are concerned about the Four Winds Opener, a sale further back in the planning process that could happen as soon as 2024.
Resident David Voth, who owns a home next to Mosquito Lake School, is concerned about logging lands behind his house. He also said his land is fed by a small spring that creates a marshy area that supports rich toad habitat. He fears that bulldozing there would end the toad ecosystem.
Palmieri acknowledged that Voth could see both visual and physical impacts from timber sales, as legal access to timber is along his property line. “It’s extremely sensitive to him.” He said he would consider Voth’s concerns because “now I know something that I haven’t before.”
Voth’s neighbor Julie Korsmeyer this week also raised questions about Four Winds and specifically logging on the steep slope behind their homes. She has questions about the potential for climate-change driven landslides like ones in Haines in December 2020. “Are you not going to be falling into consideration of that kind of weather scenario?” she said.
Palmieri said he would field all questions at Wednesday’s meeting, but said he would be able to provide less information about Four Winds. The Ski Hill timber sale would be offered in 2023 at the earliest, he said.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources released a preliminary best interest finding in July proposing to offer for sale about 1,200 acres of trees to the east of Mosquito Lake Road, an area known as “Ski Hill.” Much of the area was logged about 60 years ago and a portion was the site of a rope-tow ski lift.
Palmieri said local operators have expressed interest in the timber and that other residents have voiced support for new recreation opportunities that would be available by opening old logging roads.
The state says Ski Hill will provide up to 11 million board feet of timber in the next 10-20 years. The sales would provide up to 500,000 board feet of timber per year to local operators for sawlogs and firewood.
Harvest methods will include selective cutting and clearcuts limited to 10-acre sections. Under the recently issued interest finding, timber sales will be made from four separate areas including Ski Hill Opener, Ski Hill Ridge, Ski Hill Knob and Ski Hill South.
Palmieri said this week that he won’t know the number of clearcuts until the state does more on-site work. Such information will be included in a Forest Land Use Plan, the final stage of planning before timber is sold.
The interest finding and land use plan are “decision documents” that can be appealed by citizens.
Palmieri said he was concerned that residents are ascribing finality to decisions that are still under planning. “This is a stepped process for planning and the public has a say in every step. I’m incorporating information I get every step of the way.”
Comments on the Ski Hill sale can be mailed to the State of Alaska, Division of Forestry, P.O. Box 263, Haines Alaska, 99827, or sent by email to [email protected].
Individuals with questions regarding the interest finding or the review process may also contact Palmieri by phone during regular business hours at 907-766-2120. If the Haines office is unavailable, contact the Division of Forestry office in Juneau, 907-465-2491.