The state Department of Natural Resources is moving forward with its effort to overhaul the longstanding plan that dictates how it manages one of Alaska’s three state forests.
Agency staff are in Haines this week to meet with a range of local groups to solicit input for the new roadmap, which would open the entire Haines State Forest to logging — a major departure from the plan that’s been in place since 2002.
The effort began in 2024 after Gov. Mike Dunleavy directed the state Division of Forestry to boost the timber industry in Southeast Alaska – particularly in the Haines State Forest. The new version of the plan would also need to accommodate another Dunleavy policy: the sale of carbon credits.
But the major change is that the new management plan would allow for timber harvest in the entire forest, as opposed to about half of it.
“Prior to that it was 42,000 acres” available for harvest,” State Forester Greg Palmieri said in an interview earlier this week. “Well, now there's 74,360 acres available for access for that type of resource management.”
A draft plan is in the works, but it hasn’t been released to the public yet. First, the agency will meet with local groups – including tribes, the Haines Borough and various advisory committees.
State Forester Greg Palmieri said those meetings will inform the draft, which should be released for public comment this spring.
“If we're going to do this here, what do you think is the most appropriate way to do it, to protect the interest that you represent?” Palmieri said. “That's the meaningful contribution that we're trying to acquire at this time.”
Take the state forest land around Chilkoot Lake, which previously was not available for timber harvest. Palmieri said that the new plan could specify, for instance, that even though some timber harvest in that area may be on the table, clear cutting is not.
But at two local meetings this week that addressed the plan, participants focused more on the state’s process and its goal to boost logging than they did on any specific forestry recommendations.
One of those meetings happened Wednesday morning. Forestry officials met with a group that advises the state on how to manage the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. Some, including Bill Thomas, seemed supportive of the effort.
“People forget, if it wasn’t for the logging industry, you wouldn’t have access out here anywhere," he said.
Others, including Haines Mayor Tom Morphet, questioned the intent of the plan revision and potential outcome for local people.
“The state I think is going to have to make a lot better job explaining why it wants to start logging on recreation lands,” he said. “What’s the benefit to the community?”
People also voiced confusion over the process – and how they were supposed to weigh in on the issue without seeing the current draft or specific questions from the state.
That sentiment also arose on Monday, during a meeting of the area Fish and Game Advisory Committee. The group had yet to meet with DNR about the plan, but members spent the bulk of its regular meeting discussing it.
“They want us to comment when we have absolutely no idea of what their specific intentions are in any of these areas," said committee member Kip Kermoian. “We have more meetings, but I think we need to insist on, if they want us to make informed decisions, we need more information.”
The group had yet to schedule a meeting with the state agency, but it voted to send a letter noting that the state is required by law to consult with them on such matters – and that the group’s members don’t think that what’s happened so far amounts to good-faith consultation.
Both committees indicated they planned to provide more specific, forestry-related feedback in the coming weeks.
