State moves to adopt Haines State Forest plan with logging in habitat and recreation lands

The Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection plans to adopt an amended Haines State Forest management plan that allows logging in wildlife habitat and recreation lands, according to a notice posted Oct. 1. The division's Issue Response Summary says harvest there must still serve each land classification's management goals. Final comments are due by 5 pm Nov. 2.

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The draft sets a commercial timber base of 74,360 acres, up from 41,652 acres under the current plan, according to the Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee. The draft sets a commercial timber base of 74,360 acres and an annual allowable harvest of 14.77 million board feet, or 601 acres a year on a 120-year rotation. Of the new base, 7,608 acres sit on Public Recreation lands and 13,472 acres on Wildlife Habitat lands. The 2002 plan barred commercial harvest on about 47,000 acres. The draft would open 10 of those units to logging.

The division answered spring public comments with "No change" 113 times, rejecting requests to remove units from the timber base, reclassify Chilkat Ridge, halt timber sales in the Kelsall River watershed and define old growth to bar its harvest. The division said a watershed-scale study of cumulative impacts is beyond its scope, staff and funding. It said barring harvest does not align with the forest's statutory primary purpose, and it repeatedly told commenters that individual timber sales will get their own review later.

Kimberley A. Strong, president of the Chilkat Indian Village in Klukwan, wrote in a June 5 letter, "Physically, and spiritually, Chilkat Ridge feeds us." Adam Smith, chair of the advisory committee, wrote that when the committee was consulted, the division "had already received direction to open Habitat and Recreation lands to timber harvest as a secondary use." Jessica Plachta, executive director of Lynn Canal Conservation, wrote that the change "runs counter to the founding legislation, the will of the public, and consideration of other beneficial uses of the forest."

The division adds three sections: a 150-foot buffer around known cultural sites unless the Office of History and Archaeology, consulting the division, decides otherwise; carbon offset projects and leases on lands of every classification if they don't impair sustained yield and keep traditional-use access; and climate-adapted forest management guidelines. One sets a 150-foot buffer around known cultural sites, unless the Office of History and Archaeology, in consultation with the division, decides otherwise. Another opens carbon offset projects and leases on lands of every classification, as long as they don't impair sustained timber yield or block traditional-use access. The third adds climate-adapted forest management guidelines. The April draft had set no buffer distance at all. The Chilkat Indian Village had sought a 300-foot buffer and formal tribal consultation, which the division said it lacks authority to require.

Comments can be sent to [email protected] through Nov. 2. The division said comments it has already answered won't get a second response, but new issues raised will be answered when the plan moves to the DNR Commissioner's Office. The notice gives no date for final adoption.