Alcan to get Leask Lakes sale

By Joanna Markell Daily News Staff Writer

The Alaska Mental Health Trust land office plans to award a contract to Ketchikan-based Alcan Forest Products to log approximately 60 million board feet of timber at Leask Lakes.

The trust issued a request for sealed bid proposals in November to log its land around Leask Lakes. It received proposals from AIcan and Aloha Lumber of Olympia, Wash., according to Doug Campbell, a senior resource manager for the trust's land office. Alcan submitted the best offer, he said.

The 4,800-acre tract about 15 miles northeast of Ketchikan contains an estimated 80 million board feet of timber. Alcan's proposal calls for 22 miles of road and a combination of clear cutting and some selective logging, Campbell said.

The timber sale could generate $6 million to $8 million for the trust. The exact value of the sale will depend on the amount and type of timber that is logged, Campbell said. Money generated by the trust supports mental health services in Alaska.

Alcan has been logging Alaska Mental Health Trust sales on Gravina Island, Signal Mountain and Bear Valley around Ketchikan in recent months, and has been exporting timber in the round.

Meanwhile, a nonprofit group called the Leask Users Coalition is working on a plan for the Leask Lakes area that involves recreation, hunting, transportation, some logging and wildlife protection. The group has been in discussions with the Alaska Mental Health Trust land office, and hopes to work out a memorandum of understanding involving 600 to 1,000 acres of wetlands, timber land and muskeg around the Leask Lakes and the creek, according to coordinator Laura Baker.

The effort might involve gaining title or conservation easements to the land, she said. The group also is working on a fundraising plan to compensate the trust, Baker said in an e-mail.

"The Leask Users Coalition's goal is to be effective at delivering a balanced management plan to an immensely valuable area," she said. "To do this, we have to work in cooperation with the Alaska Mental Health Trust to make sure that quality recreation and rich wildlife resources are not lost from logging activities."

The coalition has been working with the Southeast Alaska Land Trust, and applied for a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant. Another application for a North American Wetlands Conservation Grant, in conjunction with other private parcels in Southeast Alaska, also is being written, Baker said.

"The grant process is extremely valuable, but equally as important are local contributions ranging from volunteer hours to cash which show the community is committed to the project," she said.

Diane Mayer, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Land Trust said she's been in contact with the Mental Health Trust to find a way to work out a conservation option in the northern lakes area and stream corridor while still accommodating to timber harvest in the southern portion.

More meetings are planned, she said. "We're open to any options that can preserve what we would consider the wildland values for the northern part," she said. "We're not opposed to limited select logging within that area if it could protect the conservation values when it's being done."

The Leask Users Coalition and the Southeast Alaska Land Trust are facing an ambitious time frame to get something in place, but grant agencies are interested in the project and there is a lot of momentum in Ketchikan, Mayer said.

"I'm real hopeful that the Alaska Mental Health Trust will continue to be a willing landowner and work with some of the time frames that applying for and being awarded grants takes," she said. "The interest is there, so hopefully they'll continue to work with us on bringing that to fruition."

Campbell said the Mental Health Trust asked for timber harvest proposals that would use selective harvest around Leask Lakes and a corridor along Leask Creek.
It was a case where the trust and the Leask Users Coalition's interests coincided, he said. In the future, the trust could earn money from the property through a subdivision of lots around the lake or a fishing lodge, he said.

"The attraction would be the creek and fish runs in the creek," he said.
Campbell and representatives from the trust are scheduled to meet with the Leask Users Coalition and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Officials about the Leask Lakes timber sale in early March.

Elsewhere in Southeast, the trust has completed conservation sales in Gustavus, at Petersburg Creek and at Mt. Verstovia in Sitka.

An agreement with the coalition "depends on how our interests, their interests and the interests of Alcan overlap, and also what resources they can bring to the table," Campbell said.

Alcan partners Brian Brown said his company also has talked with Leask Users Coalition members. "I wouldn't say no to anything," he said. "If we have rights to the timber, they have to negotiate with us as well as the Mental Health Trust. I think there's probably room for something that might work."

Brown said his company hopes to start roadbuilding for the sale in April or May. The timber harvest will take several years.