
Long-discussed timber harvest sites on the east side of Chilkat Lake have received renewed attention. Last fall, state agencies visited the possible location of a bridge that would be required to access the projects.
The Alaska Division of Forestry’s proposed 2024-2028 five-year Forest Management Schedule for the Haines State Forest includes the Chilkat Ridge timber harvests.
As described in that schedule, two harvest sites would be on a ridge between the Chilkat River and the east side of Chilkat Lake, and could target a total of 35 million board feet on hundreds of acres.
Accessing those sites would require about 13 miles of new roads and a bridge across the Tsirku River.
Staff from the state’s divisions of Forestry and Habitat visited the potential bridge crossing site in October — the first time the agencies visited the river together, Haines forester Greg Palmieri wrote in an email.
In letters sent in January, Chilkat Indian Village and the Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee raised concerns about the potential bridge and the lack of Tribal consultation from the state agencies discussing the project.
Chilkat Indian Village president Jones Hotch Jr. said the Tribe only learned of the site visit after the advisory committee shared a Fish and Game trip report that detailed the meeting.
“We were deeply disappointed it happened that way,” Hotch said. “We firmly request Fish and Game informs us of all activities on traditional territory moving forward.”
The Tribe’s Jan. 13 letter was sent to Fish and Game staff as well as Palmieri, and asked Fish and Game and the Department of Natural Resources to meet with Chilkat Indian Village at the government-to-government level.
Hotch said as of Jan. 24 the Tribe had not received a response. The Juneau-based Division of Habitat staff to whom the letter was addressed did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
Palmieri, forestry’s representative at the site visit, wrote that his division did not inform the Tribe of the visit.
“No, notice of the site visit for agency project work did not go to CIV. Project work with agency staff is frequent and ongoing, constituting the normal course of work management. Agency site visits are not publicly noticed,” he wrote.
The Tribe was notified each time the forest management schedule was put out for public review during his tenure in Haines, he wrote.
The Fish and Game trip report from the visit describes a “bridge network” to get across the Tsirku River and to the project site.
The report from the Oct. 14 visit said Palmieri’s crossing concept is a low-profile road from the end of the existitng spur road east of the Tsirku River landing to the historic Dalton Trail on the west side of the river.
The road would cross the gravel bar, use log culverts to cross side channels, and have a “seasonally-removable 60- or 100-foot steel bridge” across the main channel of the river, which is estimated at a little more than a half-mile across.
The Tribe’s letter detailed specific harms the crossing, its culverts and their construction could have, including increased sedimentation in the Tsirku River and degraded water clarity.
“This poses severe risks to the salmon and Haa Ḵusteeyí (our way of life), altering natural hydrological patterns that have sustained both of our ways of life since time immemorial,” the letter said.
The Tsirku is critical salmon habitat, Hotch said, and the people of Klukwan want to see the watershed protected for future generations.
“It’s vital for the salmon to continue to spawn where they have always spawned,” Hotch said.
Hotch said he was worried about the traditional way of life that salmon support for Tribal members, and about the watershed and commercial fishery.
“I can’t see the fishing industry affording to lose a watershed that has been a spawning grounds for thousands of years,” he said. “It also feeds our way of life. My father was a commercial fisherman, so I know all the hard work that goes into it.”
The advisory committee’s letter listed similar environmental concerns and also asked that Fish and Game’s Habitat Division consult with the Tribe with at least 60-day notice prior to issuing a permit for the project.
The trip report stated that a Fish and Game habitat permit would be required for the proposed bridge construction, and the Haines Forest management guidelines also prioritize maintaining or enhancing anadromous fish habitat within 300 feet of an anadromous stream, such as the Tsirku.
Palmieri wrote that the five-year schedule is an early step in planning resource management projects, and is intended to gather information about the proposed work.
Prior to development, the agency would have to produce decision documents with additional detail, and those would be available for public review and comment. So far, there is no specific interest in harvesting at Chilkat Ridge, although contractors in the state have “expressed interest in additional timber sale offerings,” Palmieri wrote.
The proposed 2024-2028 management schedule was published for public comment in December, with a review period through Jan. 15, 2025.
The document included more than a dozen potential timber harvests in the area, and appeared to be mostly the same as the division’s last five-year plan covering 2022-2026.
The Chilkat Ridge projects make up the largest portion of the possible harvests in both plans, and received public attention in 2022, as well.
At that time, the Chilkat Valley News reported that there were 30 comments submitted on the variety of the projects included in that plan, some of which specified concerns about the Chilkat Ridge harvests.
Smaller versions of the Chilkat Ridge projects also appeared in the 2020-2024 schedule.
Hotch said he was grateful that others in the community were also concerned about salmon habitat and had informed the committee of the trip report and potential harvests.
“We appreciate the support we’re receiving on working to save the Chilkat Valley watershed, and hope it continues to grow,” he said.