By THAD POULSON
Sentinel Staff Writer
It was billed as a “scoping session” about the process being used by state and federal officials to develop an Alaska-specific roadless rule for the Tongass National Forest, but the 60 or so Sitkans who crowded into a meeting room at the Aspen Suites Hotel Monday night had more basic questions:
Why is this being done and what’s the rush?
The reason, said Kyle Moselle of the state Department of Natural Resources, is that Gov. Walker petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture back in January for a rule making process “designed to conserve roadless area characteristics in the Tongass ... while accommodating timber harvest and road construction and reconstruction activities that are determined by the state to be necessary for forest management, economic development activities. ...”
The USDA accepted the petition, but the state’s position goes back to 2001 when it filed suit against the federal government, opposing the roadless rule as it applied to the national forests in Alaska. That suit is still wending its way through the federal courts, with hearings scheduled in Washington, D.C., next month.
Monday’s meeting was one in a whirlwind schedule taking the “Alaska Roadless Core Team” to towns throughout Southeast, as well as Anchorage and Washington, D.C., to publicize the process set in motion by a memorandum of agreement Walker signed with the U.S. Forest Service on Aug. 2. On Sept. 6 Walker signed an administrative order setting up a citizens advisory committee to “provide recommendations to the governor and the state forester” in the state’s role as a “cooperating agency” with the Forest Service.
As for the fast-paced schedule – members of the 13-member state advisory team haven’t yet been appointed but their final report to DNR is due by Nov. 30 – one of the USFS officials at the meeting, Ken Tu, said it’s because experience with the two other state-specific roadless rules negotiated with the Forest Service indicate the process can be “responsive to the public” and done in much less time than the seven years that it took in Colorado or the three for the one in Idaho.
Kenneth Tu, U.S. Forest Service regional administrative review coordinator, takes questions at a public meeting to discuss changes to, and take comments on, the 2001 Roadless Rule. Monday evening. More than 50 Sitkans packed into a conference room at the Aspen Suites Hotel for the meeting. At left is Kyle Moselle of the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Heading up Monday’s meeting were Dana Roth, acting deputy Tongass Forest supervisor; Ken Tu, the USFS interdisciplinary team leader; Kyle Moselle of the Alaska DNR office of project management and permitting; and Robert Nichols, project manager from the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.
Comments from the public in the packed meeting room stressed the economic and social benefits to Sitka from the roadless rule as it stands, and how they would be threatened by changes.
Nichols responded that “status quo” will be one of the options for the advisory and executive teams.
The mood in the room, evidenced by the crowd’s questions and comments, was decidedly against the state-federal attempt at rewriting the hard-fought reforms on management of the Tongass in after decades of industrial logging that ended in the 1990s,
Eric Jordan spoke of the importance of having one management rule for all of Southeast Alaska, which he described as “one community,” instead of “balkanizing” the region with different rules for different places.
Later in the meeting, Jordan spoke strongly about the importance of old growth timber to salmon habitat, particularly in light of the effects of climate change and the poor returns being experienced throughout Southeast. He thanked the presenters for their “decorum” in facing an audience so obviously unconvinced about the merits of a revised roadless rule.
And citing the political changes in the state and federal governments that will take place before the 2020 target date for adoption of a new Alaska roadless policy, he termed the current project “an exercise in futility.”
Dick Nelson asked how the economic value of the way of life people enjoy in Southeast Alaska, through the “synergy” of existing uses, would be factored into the decisions being made. Nichols said he wasn’t sure how this would be done, but said the team has an economist in Washington who will give advice on that.
Other speakers questioned the Forest Service’s priorities as it seeks to allow new commercial activity in the Tongass while not addressing rehabilitation of the thousands of acres of clear-cuts, and restoration of the wildlife and recreational habitat damaged by logging.
Throughout the evening the presenters emphasized that they were not there to take testimony, and no record was being kept of the comments from the public at this or any of the scoping sessions now under way.
Only written comments from the public will be accepted and the comment period will close on Oct. 15. Nichols said they expect many thousands of comments to be submitted by the public, but to be considered they must be specific, substantive and include a rationale for adoption. Submissions that are obviously mass-produced will not be considered.
