A final decision on the Wrangell Island timber sale is expected out next week, wrapping up years of deliberation and planning.
Citing objections to the economics and ecological impacts of its preferred plan, the United States Forest Service has indicated it will be reducing total harvest for the proposed sale on Wrangell Island to around 428 acres, or 5- to 7-million board feet (mmbf) of timber. These would be sold piecemeal over the course of several years.
Of five alternatives put forward, Alternative 2 had proposed around 55.8 mmbf available, primarily for sawtimber. Over several years, the harvest would have affected 4,767 acres of federal lands on the island, with about a third of that acreage to be clearcut and the rest selectively harvested.
After a period of public presentations and receiving input, a draft record of decision (ROD) to that effect signed by Tongass National Forest supervisor Earl Stewart was released earlier this year in July.
During the 45-day period that followed, five objections were received relating to the proposed sale. Two of these objections were filed by Wrangell residents, George Woodbury and Bruce Smith, with the latter objecting to the closure of some roads to subsistence users as part of the project. Woodbury’s objection letter was critical of the economics of the proposed alternative, asserting that only a minor share of the volume being considered would appraise positively.
The Borough Assembly also objected to the sale as it was proposed. Lodging an objection on behalf of the city on August 28, Wrangell manager Lisa Von Bargen had made the case that the plan’s chosen alternative was offering too little timber for harvest to be of use to the local economy. While the Wrangell Assembly had voted in favor of Alternative 2 during the summer of 2016, Von Bargen noted that was due more to the shortcomings of other options rather than the plan’s merits.
“Disappointingly, Alternative 2 falls short of providing any substantive economic benefit for Wrangell,” Von Bargen wrote.
The scope of the plan as initially envisioned had been three to four times larger than the acreage being considered in Alternative 2, she noted. This complaint was also made in another objection filed by the Alaska Forest Association in Sitka. The industry group further added that the sale as a whole would run a deficit, by about $3.3 million to a potential export purchaser and $12 million to a domestic manufacturer.
To improve the economic viability of the project, AFA had previously recommended more temporary road construction and less stringent viewshed constraints, as well as restoring an exemption to the “Roadless Rule” for Alaska. That 2001 prohibition limits construction and harvesting on inventoried areas within the National Forest system deemed to be roadless.
A fifth objection was filed by environmental group Earthjustice, which represents a number of ecologically focused groups. The omnibus objection held that the project was out of keeping with four separate acts of Congress where it pertained to protecting wildlife, and that the sale failed to meet its economic ends.
A response to the five objections was filed on November 29, after Stewart had met with the different parties individually and as a group. With his recommendations from those meetings in mind, USFS regional forester Beth Pendleton addressed Wrangell’s economic concerns by pointing out this particular sale was “one of many” potential projects within the forest. Under the Tongass Forest Management Plan as amended last year, she said the USFS expected around 690 mmbf to be available for harvest over a 15-year period, up to 98 mmbf per year.
In the 40-page document’s conclusion, with the Wrangell sale Stewart was to be directed to move forward with around 428 acres of economically viable timber, deferring the rest of selected units until additional analysis can be completed in the future. The forest supervisor would also be directed to review in greater detail the project’s potential impact on animal populations, in particular deer, wolves, red-backed voles and goshawks. Once these and other identified issues had been addressed in the draft, she explained, the final ROD could be signed.
A final ROD is expected out of the forest supervisor’s office early next week. But a pair of potential delays to that decision brew back in Washington D.C. One is passage of a budget deal, which Congress is trying to push through before a deadline tomorrow. If a budget or, more likely, a short-term extension fail to be adopted by then, the federal government could enter a period of shutdown, with offices across the country going on furlough.
The government is currently operating on a similar extension, since the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. The last shutdown occurred in 2013, when legislative deadlock led to a 16-day lapse in appropriations.
The other possible change could be seen if proposals put forward by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are adopted. Attached last month to an appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior, the Alaska senator included an amendment that would reject the 2016 Tongass amended land plan, which shifted USFS management priorities to young-growth rather than old-growth timber harvest. The potential change was made possible after the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office ruled in October that it was subject to congressional review.
If adopted, the Tongass would revert to management under its 2008 plan. Also part of Murkowski’s amendment, the national forest would be exempted from the 2001 Roadless Rule. The bill, as of Tuesday, is in committee.
Even in the event timber management focus reversed course, there may be little or no change to the Wrangell Island sale needed. Ranger Bob Dalrymple explained the sale had largely been developed under the prior management plan, and so would likely be unaffected by changes there.
“It’s in compliance with both,” he said.
Once a final decision has been signed, any sale still has a long way to go. The next step will be inventorying and appraising acreage selected for harvest. Progress on that could be weather-dependent this winter. But once finished, if values come out positive, the timber will go out to bid and eventually harvest.
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