Trust set to log Ketchikan parcel
Opponents are working to stop plan
By Paula Dobbyn

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority is getting out of the logging business in Southeast with a final push near Ketchikan.

The trust is selectively logging old-growth timber behind the former pulp mill town and plans to clear-cut most of a 4,800-acre parcel called Leask Lakes, which a coalition of residents wants to preserve.

The trust, established by Congress in 1956, received 1 million acres and $200 million in a court settlement a decade ago. Its mission is to generate revenue to fund services for Alaska's mentally ill residents. The trust makes money through oil and gas leasing, real estate, logging and other means.

Loggers for the trust have cut millions of board feet of old- growth timber at Icy Bay, between Cordova and Yakutat, and in Southeast. Logging at Icy Bay is complete, and that's soon to be the case in the Panhandle as well, said Wendy Woolf, acting executive director.

Lumber markets are retooling to handle second-growth trees, not the big, rare giants that still grow in the Southeast rainforest, Woolf said.

Mills that once processed massive ancient trees have closed or refashioned themselves to handle smaller logs, Woolf said.

"The industry is moving to the next generation," she said.

A consultant hired by the trust advised that the market for Southeast old-growth timber is likely to dry up in three to five years.

"That market is coming to an end. Knowing that, we moved forward to do asset-management planning, and we're moving forward with that," said Doug Campbell, senior resource manager for the trust.

The trust's logging operations are not without controversy. The Icy Bay cutting sparked outcry from environmentalists, university students and some area dwellers over the years.

Recognizing that the cutting in Ketchikan would take place close to town, the trust decided to leave those parcels until the very end, to give the community time to work out a potential land purchase, Woolf said.

The trust is aware that residents sometimes oppose logging and prefer to buy the land for conservation. That happened last winter in Gustavus, where community members organized with The Nature Conservancy to protect 4,000 acres of waterfront property owned by the trust. The Conservancy paid $3 million in November for the property, with two-thirds of the money coming from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Conservancy staff said at the time. The purchase meant that the land will be managed for wildlife conservation, not for housing development.

In Ketchikan, a similar effort is under way, but it appears to be more fraught with complications.

An organization called the Leask Users Coalition has been talking with trust officials for about a year to figure out a way to prevent Leask Lakes from being clear-cut. The coalition is a diverse group, said borough manager Roy Eckert. Besides environmental activists, hunters, Native leaders, furniture makers, tourism and sports fishing interests are among the members, said Laura Baker, executive director.

Leask Lakes is an arduous hike from the Ketchikan road system, but it's close enough that people use the area for recreation and other activities, according to residents. The area is about 14 miles northeast of Ketchikan.

The coalition wants to purchase strips of forest around the two lakes and a salmon stream that runs through the parcel. Its goal is to raise $1.5 million to buy several hundred acres.

Until March, the group thought it might be able to strike an agreement with the trust, but that changed recently, Baker said. Trust officials told the group that members would have to purchase the entire 4,800-acre parcel after it was logged, not just bits and pieces.

The trust has a fiduciary responsibility to maximize revenue for its beneficiaries, and the way to accomplish that is to log the timber and retain the forest around the lakes and creek for possible recreational cabin or housing development, Woolf said.

The trust will selectively harvest around the sensitive areas and will leave tree buffers in accordance with state logging law, Campbell said.

The coalition came forward with a concept "but they brought no resources to the table," Campbell said.

Both Woolf and Campbell expressed willingness to keep working with the group. Baker said the coalition is continuing to secure grant money.

The property is probably worth $10 million to $13 million in its present condition or $3 million after logging, Campbell said. Eckert said he's not unhappy with the helicopter logging the trust is presently conducting behind the town.

"You can't even tell where they've been. Many people thought the cruise ship people would be aghast, but you can't even see it."

The logs are being shipped out of Alaska without any local processing, something that Eckert says is unfortunate but understandable. If local mills handled the wood before it left the state, that would create jobs. But the logs would probably be worth less.

Photo by Chris Wilhelm

Daily News reporter Paula Dobbyn can be reached at pdobbyn@adn.com or 257-4317.

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