Over 20 people attended a Department of Natural Resources meeting at the Kenai Peninsula College Kachemak Bay Campus in Homer last Tuesday, Jan. 6, to provide input on the potential establishment of a Kenai Peninsula State Forest.
Tuesday’s meeting was the last of five DNR has hosted throughout the Kenai Peninsula since December, when the agency first introduced the idea of transferring some DNR land from the Division of Mining, Land and Water to the Division of Fire and Forestry Protection to be used for timber production. The public can continue to submit comments online or by mail until 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 16.
Since state law says only the Alaska Legislature can designate a state forest, DNR will send all public input received to the department commissioner. If there’s enough support, the commissioner will forward the proposal to state lawmakers. That’s when a map outlining the areas that would become the state forest would be created, but Kenai Kodiak Area Forester Diane Campbell said Thursday that it could take years before a Kenai Peninsula State Forest actually exists.
Campbell said public comment last Tuesday was again mixed, with some community members in favor of designating parts of the Kenai Peninsula as a state forest and some against.
“One person mentioned that he had property up in the Tanana Valley State Forest with a cabin there, and that the recreation opportunities were amazing,” Campbell said. “He said he’d like to see something like that down here in terms of the access and the ability to do the same things that we do now every day — recreating, fishing, berry picking, hunting, riding four-wheelers, hiking — all those things that we still do right now would have more of a permanent availability if we obtain the state forest.”
When DNR first released a map showing state lands on the Kenai Peninsula, Campbell said people “created a lot of negativity” because they thought the area around Caribou Hills was going to be included in the proposal. She reiterated that Caribou Hills is already designated as a recreational area and will not be included in the state forest if the proposal moves forward.
Environmental organizations have raised red flags in previous meetings, saying the shift in management could signal an expansion in industrialized timber operations. Katie Gavenus, secretary of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society board of directors, previously told the Clarion in December that putting in roads to support timber production could impact the hydrology of salmon habitats, depleting the flow of nutrients. The removal of trees could also open salmon habitat to increased erosion and flooding.
Although state forests are primarily managed for timber production and regeneration, Campbell has said DFFP will maintain opportunities for recreation and work with other environmental organizations to ensure areas used for hunting, fishing and other subsistence practices remain unpolluted. During Tuesday’s meeting, borough residents were concerned the designation would eliminate opportunities for recreation.
“They were afraid that if we created a state forest, we would block access to those activities,” Campbell said. “And that is totally contradictory. I mean, it’s totally opposite of what a state forest is. The state forest guarantees the state land will stay as state land and will be available for the public.”
State forests already represent around 2% of state-owned land in Alaska, with the Tanana Valley, Haines and Southeast state forests covering over two million cumulative acres. During the Dec. 11 community meeting, Campbell said the Kenai Peninsula State Forest would expand the Tanana Valley State Forest by 600,000 acres, with areas affected by spruce beetle mortality providing the strongest opportunities for reforestation.
Additional public comments can be emailed to stateforests@alaska.gov, or mailed to the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection at 550 W. 7th Ave. Ste. 1450 in Anchorage by 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 16.
