Mental Health Trust OKs old-growth logging above Hollis' historic Wolf Creek Boatworks

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office on Wednesday gave final approval to a timber sale that includes about 800 acres of old-growth forest on the hillside above Wolf Creek Boatworks, a 1930s boatbuilding site near Hollis on Prince of Wales Island that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The sale covers 1,438 acres and an estimated 20 million board feet of timber. Money from Trust land pays for services for Alaskans with mental illness, developmental disabilities, addiction, dementia and brain injuries, and the Trust now expects to make more than the $2.7 million it had projected in 2022, citing rising prices, especially for western red cedar.

Of the 106 comments the Trust received, four supported the sale. Ninety-one were largely similar, from people as far away as San Diego and Pittsburgh. The longest came from the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and the Organized Village of Kasaan.

Commenters argued the boatworks' historic value comes from the forested watershed around it, not just its buildings, and that clear-cutting the slopes behind it would irreversibly weaken it. Tribes said the Trust didn't consult them government to government. Commenters also repeatedly cited a sacred waterfall inside the sale area.

The Trust's final decision, signed by Executive Director Jusdi Warner, says no logging will happen inside the historic district and that the Alaska Historic Preservation Act will apply. It says state law doesn't require the kind of tribal consultation commenters asked for. It made no changes to the June proposal.

The boatworks' buildings, where Wolf Creek meets Twelve-Mile Arm, went up under a U.S. Forest Service permit that expired in December 2015. The Trust took over the land from the Forest Service in 2021, and the decision says neither agency has authorized the buildings since. The Trust understands that the Organized Village of Kasaan held an interest in the boatworks as of April 2025, the decision says.

The Trust says it has offered the boatworks a land-use authorization for up to 5 acres, with the idea that the boatworks could later buy the land, but no deal has been reached. The site was added to the National Register in June 2025, and the Trust says it didn't oppose the listing.

Next, the Trust will seek proposals from logging contractors. Commenters can ask the Trust to reconsider within 20 days, and only they can later appeal in court.