The University of Alaska Board of Regents approved a controversial land lease near Haines and Klukwan to a logging contractor at special meeting Tuesday. The 13,426-acres area includes a portion of the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.
The sale is the largest in Haines in recent memory. It includes about 150 million board feet of Stika spruce, western hemlock, cottonwood and birch to be logged over 10 years.
Board members expressed concern about the area being logged responsibly, but said they were bound by a fiduciary responsibility to move forward with the sale. The plan passed 9-1.
“In my mind, it’s not about being for or against timber sales, it’s about the right balance for this particular approach,” board member Karen Perdue said.
A responsibility to fund education, including some 9,000 Alaska high school scholarships backed by timber sales, swayed board member Dale Anderson in favor of the lease.
“Our fiduciary responsibility as board members is to the University of Alaska and the well-being of that school. So I encourage all of us to take a close look at our intent in our votes to know that that’s where our loyalty lies,” Anderson said.
The board will now work with a contractor, whose name it has kept confidential to protect their business interests. A permitting process is expected to take two years before cutting can begin.
Haines has been split on the lease. A McDowell Group report found that 65 percent of Haines households “strongly support of support timber sales.” But public testimony at a special Haines Borough Assembly meeting in April weighed against the project and what some are viewing as a rushed timeline for public comment.
After the April Assembly meeting, the project’s public comment period was pushed back 10 days. The Board of Regents included some new provisions in the project’s plan, based on requests from the public, that logs be supplied to Alaska buyers and small mills. The board also added stipulations to make biomass supplies available for Haines and wood for local niche markets like those who make musical instruments.
The contractor can now draw up a final contract, which it will submit to the board sometime in July or August. The plan will then need to pass regulatory and environmental processes from several government agencies before loggers can begin work.
The timber lies in an area west of the Chilkat River and within the southwestern portion of the Haines State Forest. The UA system has generated $46.5 million from timber sales since 1988.
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 and kgullufsen@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @KevinGullufsen.
