State approves 183-acre Heceta Island clearcut with 300-foot beach buffer

The state approved clearcutting roughly 183 acres on Heceta Island, leaving about 300 feet of shoreline timber standing where its own habitat biologist recommended a buffer of 1,000 feet.

The Division of Forestry and Fire Protection's Coastal Regional Forester signed the best interest finding, the state's finding that a sale serves its interest, on Sept. 14, and the division published it Wednesday. The sale covers about 7.4 million board feet of western hemlock, Sitka spruce and western red cedar roughly 12 miles southwest of Naukati on Prince of Wales Island, to be clearcut with excavators that swing the logs to the road. The sale still depends on a U.S. Forest Service access permit to the eventual purchaser, drafted but not yet issued, since the road and docks serving the site are federal, so the logging timeline is not set.

The western 83 acres fall under the 1998 Prince of Wales Island Area Plan as General Use land; the eastern 102 acres sit inside the legislatively designated Southeast State Forest, where the plan does not apply, shaping which habitat protections the division treated as binding.

Mark Minnillo, area habitat biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told the division its updated mapping, drawn from 61 female deer GPS collared on Prince of Wales between 2010 and 2013, puts the units in the top 20 percent of all winter deer habitat statewide. The units weren't identified as crucial or prime habitat in the 1998 plan, but Minnillo wrote they may now qualify: "As both timber harvest units within this sale propose harvest within 1,000 feet of the shoreline (Fig. 2), additional allowances for wildlife habitat are recommended in both timber harvest units," citing the Tongass forest plan's shoreline buffer.

The division declined, saying leaving 1,000 feet of timber adjacent to the beach "precludes multiple uses of the land in this management area and, more specifically, feasible timber sales." Nine of the ten comments came from Fish and Game and one from Environmental Conservation. Eight drew "comment noted, no change required"; the buffer recommendation drew "comment noted, no change made"; the crucial-habitat comment received no written response.

Fish and Game recorded 13 to 57 deer taken on Heceta Island annually from 2015 through 2024. The island has no permanent communities; use includes berry picking, trapping and hunting. In 2015 the state logged roughly 139 acres of young growth there, a smaller harvest.

The preliminary decision was noticed May 15 through the state's notice system, two libraries, ten post offices and four newspapers. No public comment was received.

Reconsideration requests go to DNR Commissioner John Crowther within 20 days of issuance, which the state dates Sept. 16, putting the deadline at Oct. 6, with a $200 fee. The decision limits them to affected persons who filed timely comment, so the only parties eligible to object are the two agencies that did. Absent a request, it becomes final 30 days after signature.