State sets Fairbanks-Delta timber sale roadmap through 2030

The state has published where logging may be proposed near Fairbanks and Delta Junction over the next five years. The Division of Forestry and Fire Protection has issued its final 2026-2030 Five Year Schedule of Timber Sales for the Fairbanks-Delta Area, covering proposed sales on the Tanana Valley State Forest and other state land through fiscal 2030. Public comment on the draft closed at 4:30 p.m. on July 13.

The schedule is not permission to cut. The notice states the document "is a scoping document that outlines proposed timber sale activity to be undertaken on Tanana Valley State Forest and other State land over the next five years; it is not a decision document." Listing a stand only makes it eligible for the review that follows. It does not determine that the stand will be studied, surveyed or ultimately auctioned. The division updates each area's five-year schedule every two years, so the Fairbanks-Delta list will be revisited before the current cycle ends in 2030.

State law requires the schedules and generally bars the division from offering a sale unless it appeared on one of the two preceding five-year schedules. Sales of 160 acres or less, salvage sales and emergency sales after fire or insect damage are exempt from that requirement. The requirement is set in AS 38.05.113.

Each individual sale still requires its own review. That includes a best interest finding, the decision document required before any timber harvest can take place. The division must also prepare a Forest Land Use Plan for each proposed timber sale and personal use harvest area before harvesting. Comment periods on those individual sales come later.

The pipeline is visible in the last cycle. Sales listed on the 2022 Northern Region schedule produced preliminary findings and draft Forest Land Use Plans in November 2023, followed by eight final Fairbanks-Delta decisions after comment closed the next month. Separately, the division held auctions in fall 2025 offering 11 sales on 249 acres at Delta and eight sales on 76 acres at Fairbanks.

The schedule affects timber operators bidding on state stands, communities across the Fairbanks-Delta Area and users of the Tanana Valley State Forest, who may see more timber sale activity over the next five years. It also sits inside a broader state effort to put state forest land to more active use for timber, revenue and other management goals while keeping sale-specific review in place.

Proposed sale locations can be viewed through the Alaska DNR Forestry Resources Viewer or on paper at area forestry offices. Andrew Allaby at the Fairbanks-Delta Area office, 907-451-2603, is the contact for questions.

The list marks the ground. The decisions come one sale at a time.