The Forest Service and community members from Prince of Wales Island signed the "Prince of Wales Landscape Level Analysis" decision last Saturday, in the city of Craig. The POW LLA, according to the Forest Service, is a long term plan to bring sustainability and alignment with stakeholder direction to all of the programs the Forest Service administers on national forest system lands within the Craig and Thorne Bay Ranger Districts.
The USDA Forest Service held a signing ceremony on Saturday, March 16 on an agreement that aims to improve forest health while supporting the resilience and economies of local communities.
The Prince of Wales Landscape Level Analysis will implement a 15-year, integrated resources management plan for federal lands on Prince of Wales Island. It is the result of a highly collaborative, public process that included significant input from an independently formed, broadly based group, as well as local tribes, youth and the general public.
The purpose of the project is to improve forest ecosystem health in the project area, help support community resiliency, and provide economic development through an integrated approach to meet multiple resource objectives. There are a host of actions within the decision, spanning many programs and stakeholder interests, including but not limited to: up to 200 miles of instream restoration, up to three recreation cabins, 12 new three-sided shelters, 4,500 acres per year of per-commercial and wildlife thinning treatments, and trail construction and maintenance.
"It is important that we honor the effort of the members of the Prince of Wales Landscape Assessment Team," said Tongass Forest Supervisor M. Earl Stewart. "Their hard work, meeting monthly over the course of a year to achieve consensus on the collection of actions, helped ensure the Forest Service's management actions on Prince of Wales will align with the agreed direction of this district's diverse stakeholders."
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