State approves Seward timber sale with a logging road along a recreation trail

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has approved selling about 829,000 board feet of Sitka spruce from 55 acres of state land near Mile 2 of Nash Road in Seward, in a decision signed Oct. 12. The timber will be offered in a sealed-bid sale.

The Division of Forestry and Fire Protection says the sale will supply saw timber, bring the state revenue and reduce wildfire fuels in an area where homes meet forest. Most public comments supported it, including from Rep. Kevin McCabe and Sen. George Rauscher.

The road to the timber would follow an existing trail that people use year-round for off-highway vehicles, hiking, biking, skiing and hunting. Access may be restricted during harvest, with notice and signs, and the division expects a new culvert, grading and brushing to improve the trail over the long term.

Chugach National Forest Supervisor Jennifer Youngblood, whose agency holds a 2004 easement on the trail, supported the sale but said the trail "is currently not built at a specification designed to accommodate highway vehicles, log truck, skidders, or other equipment." She asked the state to limit vehicles, set repair standards and consider access that doesn't use the trail. The division said the route across private land is the only legal access to the larger unit that doesn't cross Sawmill Creek, and that the trail was used in the 1980s for a joint state-Forest Service timber sale.

The state's lands division noted that the Kenai Area Plan places the Iditarod National Historic Trail through the sale area. Forestry said this segment may not be historically part of the Iditarod route, and the lands division found the harvest consistent with the plan. A 50-foot strip on each side of the trail will stay standing.

The Qutekcak Native Tribe asked for a review of effects on salmon streams, protection of subsistence access and direct tribal consultation before a final decision. Forestry said Alaska law has no government-to-government consultation process and that it would reach out to arrange a meeting.

Andrew Traxler of Papoose Milling, who supported the sale, objected to the sealed-bid method. "No timber should ever be sold under sealed bid," he wrote.

Before logging, the division must adopt a site-specific Forest Land Use Plan, which will be issued for public review. People who commented can ask the natural resources commissioner to reconsider the decision within 20 days of its issuance.