Forest Service scraps Herbert Glacier cabin for mining claim

The U.S. Forest Service has formally dropped plans for a public-use cabin near Herbert Glacier, and its final decision rests in part on something the agency's January draft left off the list: the mining claims surrounding the site.

The 44-page decision notice, signed May 29 by Juneau deputy district ranger Laura Buchheit, declines to authorize the cabin "at this time," citing "site complexity, building logistics, the presence of preexisting mining claims, and proximity of current minerals exploration activities." Construction, the decision states, "would not be prudent at this time due to heightened interest in mining claims in the area and potential for creating conflicting uses."

That is a move from where the agency started. The Jan. 24 draft decision attributed the cancellation to "the complexity of the cabin location and ongoing capacity challenges" — logistics and a thinned-out workforce, with mining absent from the stated rationale.

The cabin would have sat about a mile from the glacier's terminus, reachable by helicopter or by a 4.4-mile hike from the Herbert Glacier Trailhead — and within a federal mining claim block across the river from the New Amalga gold project, controlled by Canada's Grande Portage Resources Ltd. The site was the public's top pick among Juneau-area options when the agency surveyed interest in 2022; formal environmental review began with scoping in April 2025.

The decision found the cabin would have no significant environmental impact. It declines to build anyway, while leaving the door open to authorize one later within the same environmental analysis — no new review required. In the cabin's place, the agency will reroute an eroding section of the Herbert Glacier Trail near mile 4.4 and build a scenic overlook on a stone outcrop.

Buchheit set a standard for any future cabin: it "must not interfere with safe and reasonable access to mining claims under the General Mining Law."

Mining interests pressed exactly that point in the project record. Grande Portage CEO Ian Klassen asked in a public comment that recreation infrastructure "not be sited, expanded or operated in a manner that restricts lawful mineral activities." Alaska Miners Association executive director Deantha Skibinski warned that siting a cabin in an area of active exploration "could unnecessarily invite land use conflicts that do not and should not exist, and could incite litigation and appeals for years." A Grande Portage technical specialist, Kyle Mehalek, argued it would be "incredibly challenging, likely impossible" to shield a cabin from the project's noise and visual effects.

The public ran the other way. Of the comments the agency logged on the cancellation, most opposed it. "The idea to not have a Herbert Glacier cabin in order to appease a foreign mining company is abhorrent," wrote Karl Ashenbrenner. Among the dissenters was Neil MacKinnon, who backed the agency: "Economic mineral deposits are extremely rare, cabin sites are not."