The U.S. Forest Service wants to clean up and improve the parking area at Roosevelt Harbor, which is available for hunters and recreational users - but which also is littered with several vehicles far short of working order.
The Wrangell Ranger District wants to restore a parking area at Roosevelt Harbor. The problem is about 70 vehicles in various stages of decay on top of it, going back a couple of decades at the site on Zarembo Island, about 12 miles southwest of the Wrangell City Dock.
Roosevelt Harbor is vulnerable to pollutants and sediment from runoff at the parking lot, said District Ranger Clint Kolarich, of the Wrangell Ranger District last Tuesday.
The harbor is a popular spot for hunters and campers, offering miles of old logging roads for access into the interior of the island.
The estimated $175,000 restoration project will be paid for with Forest Service receipts from the Frenchie Stewardship timber sale several years ago on Wrangell Island and will be done in partnership with the borough and Forest Service, he said.
The plan is to add surface material to the existing grade to create drainage of the parking area away from the harbor, restore and improve existing drainage ditches and the culvert to prevent deterioration and erosion of the parking area, and restore the deteriorated catchment pond.
An environmental review has been completed, the project is entering the U.S. Department of Agriculture's procurement process, and Kolarich said the Forest Service has "had a 50% to 60% response rate" in identifying ownership of the vehicles.
Kolarich was adamant in stressing the Forest Service will not unilaterally start chucking cars and trucks off the parking area, but has been and is trying to contact vehicle owners. Identified vehicles will be inventoried and marked with a physical tag. When the process comes to an end, the Forest Service will issue a final announcement of which vehicles remain unidentified and are subject to impoundment and removal.
Kolarich wanted to be clear that no one will face punishment or punitive consequences. "The big ask is asking folks to help us inventory," Kolarich said.
People in Wrangell with information about any of the vehicles at Roosevelt can contact Lynda.nore@usda.gov or call 907-305-0842.
The Forest Service hopes to have the project under contract by June or July, but there is no guarantee on the timing, or that contractors will bid on it, he said.
It hopes to have an alternative site at Deep Bay set up for temporary storage of operational vehicles by April, and hopes all the operational vehicles will be inventoried with the Forest Service and relocated by May 31 to Deep Bay, just north of Roosevelt Harbor on Zarembo.
If this all comes together as hoped, the contractor or contractors will remove what is left at Roosevelt Harbor on Zarembo Island and complete the drainage restoration work at the parking area before the beginning of deer hunting season on Aug. 1.
After that, vehicles may be returned to Roosevelt Harbor and placed there in an orderly and organized manner while the Forest Service, borough and the community work out a long-term management plan for the site, Kolarich said. The details of that plan need to be worked out, but for now the focus is on getting those ailing vehicles off the grade so the restoration work can take place.
Reader Comments(0)