The Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee met four times in January, in part to talk about how the state is approaching changing its management of the Haines State Forest.
Now the committee is set to meet again, this time with staff from the state Division of Forestry on Monday. That meeting comes after the Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee sent a letter to the state, questioning whether it had met its legal obligation to consult them about the management plan changes.
That consultation is a required part of the process for amending the current state forest management plan.
State forestry staff began the scoping process for changing that plan in 2024 on the premise of including a new carbon offset program passed by the legislature. Early meetings focused primarily on that language. But last year the scope changed and residents learned that the division intended to open the entire Haines State Forest – with the exception of the eagle preserve – up for timber harvest. That revelation has drawn more scrutiny and attention to the process locally.
Among the issues identified by the advisory committee was that forestry staff had not made formal attempts to engage with the committee about the forest planning process until January of 2026.
Current advisory committee members argued in their letter that reaching out to them so late in the process, while at the same time not providing any detailed information about what would be contained in the updated plan, “does not meet the statutory requirement for good-faith consultation” between the two entities.
The Chilkat Valley News requested records of all of the times division of forestry staff attempted to reach the Upper Lynn Canal Advisory committee. Those documents show an initial email from Coastal Region forester Greg Palmieri in May of 2024, as well as eight more emails from forest planner Geneva Preston between July of 2025 and January of 2026.
While most of those emails were designed to engage a broad base of stakeholders, and not solely addressed to the advisory committee, as it turns out, at least some of them did not make it to the committee because the former chair’s email address was misspelled.
Haines state forestry staff say they are trying to provide as many opportunities as possible for local users to weigh-in on how the Haines State Forest is managed.
Palmieri contends that its current consultation with users in the Chilkat Valley is designed to give people as many opportunities as possible to weigh-in and that its attempts to engage with the advisory committee during its current “scoping process” are part of that attempt but they are not meant to be construed as the only time those required conversations will happen.
The section of statute that requires consultation states that the division shall consult with the fish and game advisory committee, but it does not specify when that consultation must happen during the process of amending the forest plan.
Palmieri said once the division of forestry releases its draft plan for public review and comment, then it will reach out to the advisory committee again to satisfy the legal requirement to consult with its members.
Last Tuesday, (Jan. 27) borough manager Alekka Fullerton also questioned the consultation process. She told the Haines borough assembly that she wasn’t aware that her conversations with forestry staff were going to be considered formal consultation.
“Somebody called my office and said, can you meet with Greg Palmieri, and I said ‘sure.’ They sent me a doc, I didn’t really have time to read it beforehand,” Fullerton said. “I did not understand that they were consulting me in lieu of anyone else.”
Fullerton said the forestry staff who met with her (she was on a team with planner Chen Wu and facilities director Brad Jensen) presented (an amendment opening up more of the forest for logging) as a done deal.
“They said this is a directive that has come to them and did we have any comments about how we would like them to …” Fullerton said. “I want to make it clear I did not understand I was in consultation on behalf of the Haines Borough.”
Palmieri noted that in his division’s presentations to local groups, including the borough, there’s a clearly stated purpose that the meeting is to demonstrate the type of consultation required by state statute.
Fullerton did not return a phone message seeking more information about if and how the borough intends to weigh-in on state forest planning moving forward.
But the fish and game advisory committee sent another letter to forestry asking for a response to its first one. Now the two are working to schedule a meeting.
The advisory committee is next meeting on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. on Zoom.
Correction: The Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee and Division of Forestry have not yet set a meeting date. The advisory committee is scheduled to talk about potential meeting times during its upcoming Feb. 9 meeting.