Why are we allowing clearcutting of our watershed and views along the Chilkat Range?
The impending Baby Brown timber harvest essentially destroys a big draw of our one thriving industry – visitors. And, it potentially threatens our forever industry – fishing. Do we really think that visitors paying good money would want to look at 1,000 acres of unsightly splotches of bare land across our otherwise pristine looking valley? Once it’s done, it will be there until after we die.
And for what? How will our community profit off of this logging? Jobs, not many. Severance tax? Nope. Local sales increase? Not much. New timber products industry happening? No.
Log trucks lumbering through town to dump their logs in environmentally sensitive Lutak Inlet waiting to be shipped out to Asia? Yes. These trees will be shipped directly to China, etc. And why don’t we have a severance tax?
The state’s forestry department is not even interested in what the community has to say. Shouldn’t they instead be working to save our forests and enhance our community’s best interests for the future economy? I’m sure better concepts exist for using our timber locally.
With fishing and tourism on decline due to clearcutting, where is our economic future? Visitors are an unlimited resource especially compared to the number of trees available. Salmon return year after year as long as they’re happy about their environment.
Tresham Gregg