By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
After a year of planning, the Forest Service took another step toward a significant watershed restoration and recreation enhancement project in the Starrigavan valley Thursday by releasing the final Environmental Assessment for the project.
The Forest Service announced a Finding of No Significant Impact statement, or FONSI, regarding the environmental results of the planned projects in the area just north of Sitka.
A series of landslides in 2014 caused significant damage to the steam in the upper part of the valley, damaging fish habitat and obliterating trails. The Forest Service cited the natural disaster as a reason the work is needed.
The Environmental Assessment document says in part:
“The largest of these (2014) landslides in the mainstem portion of the valley, along with its runout zone, impacted approximately 2,000 feet of fish habitat stream channel, riparian forests and three floodplain coho rearing ponds. The debris flow knocked a bridge off its foundation and subsequently diverted streamflow out of its original channel and onto downstream trails and existing tributary channels. This diverted streamflow essentially turned approximately 1,000 feet of trail into a new stream channel, causing additional erosion, degraded aquatic habitat, as well as destroying three fish culverts, a coho rearing pond.”
The Starrigavan valley is pictured from Starrigavan ridge. The U.S. Forest Service released a report on environmental impacts of proposed projects in the Starrigavan valley that would repair damage to trails and fish habitat caused by landslides in the area. (Sentinel File Photo)
The path of the landslide is visible today as a sizable boulder field in the eastern part of the valley, and is visible on satellite maps. A hiker heading to Eagle Dip Lake, in the subalpine section of the valley, must traverse this slide and navigate back to the trail before reaching old growth forest.
The valley floor was clearcut between 1969 and 1974, the assessment noted, and the landslide pinned debris against an old bridge, causing the steam to change course onto the logging road.
The document states:
“The travel corridor of the slide entered the valley bottom, denuded riparian forest stands, destroyed three off-channel coho rearing ponds and then damaged and hung up on a mainstem bridge, plugging the entire river. This massive plug of wood then aggraded (accumulated) sediment material upstream and diverted the river to both sides of the original channel location. Water diverted from the channel has washed out two large portions of the main trail system (270 feet and 570 feet) including three fish stream tributary culverts and an additional coho rearing pond.
“These flooded trail sections are now live stream channels, where adult salmon have been observed attempting to spawn in the fall. All this diverted water then enters Class I tributaries and rejoins the original mainstem approximately 700 feet downstream from the plugged mainstem bridge, leaving that abandoned channel predominantly dry.”
In the proposed action, the Sitka Ranger District plans to “reconstruct 1,000 feet of stream channel and floodplain to concentrate flows to a stable single-thread channel by excavating landslide material and using downed trees to create bank and grade control structures.”
District Ranger Perry Edwards told the Sentinel that the initial stream restoration work should get off the ground this summer, as the Forest Service has already secured the needed funding and written contracts.
The plan includes two new coho rearing ponds for salmon spawning and other stream restoration efforts. The landslide destroyed the older coho ponds in the valley.
“Hopefully, this will set us up for them to get up to spawning areas, and set up habitat for rearing for two or three years (for coho)... It’s a deeper pond, it’s slower water. But you also have to have enough flow that you’re bringing oxygen in,” Edwards said.
The Forest Service also plans to repair damaged culverts and in some cases replace them with fords.
But environmental concerns are not the only factor at play. The Forest Service intends to significantly expand and formalize recreational trail networks in the area as well.
The current hiking trail from the Nelson Logging Road to the top of Starrigavan Ridge is an informal dirt track. The map provided in the environmental assessment indicates the new trail will follow a similar route to the alpine, but will switchback to avoid steeper sections. The new route is set to loop at the top of the ridge, continuing to the promontory at the western end of the ridge.
The Forest Service intends to improve and expand motorized access in the valley as well, Edwards said.
The plan also includes a formalization of the trail to Eagle Dip Lake, a popular hunting and camping spot at the eastern end of the valley.
A totally new trail is also in the works, connecting the South Fork Starrigavan Valley to the back end of the Gavan-Harbor Trail. The map shows this new route would connect to the current trail near the alpine hut east of Harbor Mountain.
The current plan is somewhat altered from the original draft version published early in 2020. Following a public scoping comment section in February of that year, the USFS altered some aspects of the plan.
“We modified the final proposed action including not connecting the Starrigavan Ridge Trail to the Eagle Dip Lake trail to offer a more primitive experience and subsistence opportunities in that area; we changed from constructing small shelters to hardened tent sites in both of these areas as well. We also created a new foot trail going from the South Fork Starrigavan Creek connecting to the Harbor Mountain/Gavan Hill Trail at the shelter as well as added a motorized trail connecting the upper East Fork Starrigavan Creek trail to the upper watershed portion of the trail near the Eagle Dip Lake trailhead,” the report reads.
Other changes from the draft plan included a shift away from building shelters atop Starrigavan in favor of building designated tent sites.
Edwards noted that by working with the public in the planning process, he wants to ensure that the public has a stake in the work.
“We’re really trying to work with the public more, earlier on, instead of coming to the public and say ‘Here’s what we’re going to do, hope you love it or hate it,’” he said.
Following the Finding of No Significant Impact, Edwards said, Sitkans who provided comments in the first round will have 45 days to provide additional comments on the project. He specified that anyone can comment, but only those who made formal comments in the initial scoping period have standing for objections.
After getting public comments from 2020, he was hopeful that the project will be well received.
“We really spent a lot of time working with the public,” he said. “I really hope this is something people in Sitka will be using for decades to come.”
