Alaska proposes timber sales in Haines State Forest habitat areas

Alaska's Division of Forestry and Fire Protection is proposing to allow commercial timber sales in wildlife habitat and public recreation areas of the Haines State Forest, changing a policy established in the forest's 2002 management plan.

The draft plan, open for public comment through June 5, would permit timber harvest in areas previously off-limits, provided the activities support habitat enhancement or recreation access. Any timber sale would require a best interest finding and coordination with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game or the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation.

"One of the most significant changes between the plan that was published in 2002 and the current amended draft is a change in policy that allows timber sales to be a potential use in the public recreation or wildlife habitat lands," Geneva Preston, a forest planner with the Division of Forestry and Fire Protection, said during a virtual public meeting Wednesday.

The Haines State Forest covers roughly 260,000 acres in the Chilkat Valley. The draft plan identifies four land-use designations within the forest: resource management, public recreation, wildlife habitat and forest lands. The 2002 plan prohibited commercial timber harvest in the wildlife habitat and public recreation lands.

Greg Palmeri, coastal regional forester and manager of the Haines State Forest, said the earlier prohibition was a policy decision, not a determination that timber harvest was incompatible with those areas. "The decision for this policy change is based on the legal status written in the statute," Palmeri said.

Jeremy Dowse, state forester and director of the Division of Forestry and Fire Protection, said any timber harvest in wildlife habitat areas would need to align with habitat objectives developed with Fish and Game. "Any timber harvest that takes place in those land classifications has to be in alignment with the management intent," Dowse said. "If it's for wildlife habitat, we are altering the condition of the forest, the vegetation, to meet a habitat objective that ADF&G has completely worked with us on."

The draft plan emphasizes selective harvest in wildlife habitat and public recreation subunits and sets size limits on even-age harvests. Preston said the largest even-age timber harvest permitted in public recreation designated lands is 20 acres, with some subunits capped at 5 acres. In wildlife habitat subunits, size limits range from 10 to 20 acres.

"Timber harvest would are very likely to be designed in coordination with the Department of Fish and Game and they would be designed with the purpose of enhancing habitat," Preston said. "And generally this will look like selective harvest in these units as well."