The Department of Natural Resources will hold a meeting at the Kenai Peninsula College Kachemak Bay Campus in Homer this Tuesday at 6 p.m. to continue gathering public input on the potential creation of a Kenai Peninsula State Forest.
The Division of Forestry and Fire Protection has already hosted several meetings around the Kenai Peninsula to gauge interest, and so far, they’ve received mixed responses. Environmental advocacy organizations have said the proposed actions signal an expansion in industrial timber production and would harm ecosystems if fulfilled, and residents are concerned about potential impacts on hunting and fishing.
“I just don’t want to see our future become anything like some of these Lower 48 states, where logging interests take hold and all of a sudden you’ve got access, but you also don’t have the resources anymore,” Anchor Point resident Matt Beauregard said during a virtual meeting held Dec. 11.
State law says only the Alaska Legislature can designate a state forest. Any public input received will go to the department commissioner, and if there’s enough public interest, the commissioner will forward the proposal to state lawmakers. Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, is working with DNR to pass information along to the public. Bjorkman has previously defined his role in this process as “a conduit of information” and reiterated in a Dec. 31 press release that the state forest proposal did not come from him or his office.
Because there’s no official proposal, DNR has not yet provided a map of specific areas that would be included in the state forest. But during the Dec. 11 meeting, DFFP Special Projects Coordinator Lily Coyle addressed concerns from folks asking about Caribou Hills, saying it “wouldn’t make sense” to include the area in the proposal since it’s already classified as best use recreation.
During that same meeting, area forester Diane Campbell said creating the new state forest would expand the Tanana Valley State Forest by 600,000 acres. In a Dec. 5 email to the Clarion, DFFP director and state forester Jeremy Douse said areas affected by spruce beetle mortality could provide strong opportunities for reforestation and regeneration.
DNR already owns the beetlekill areas, but the Division of Mining, Land and Water has oversight. If the state forest were created, management responsibilities would be transferred to DFFP, with the state maintaining ownership. The forest would be primarily managed for timber production and regeneration, but Campbell said DFFP will work to maintain opportunities for recreation.
“A state forest wouldn’t take away the activities we enjoy,” Bjorkman wrote in the Dec. 31 release. “People would still camp, hunt, fish and snow machine. Because trees take more than a century to mature, only a very small portion of timber would ever be eligible for harvest in a given year, with protections for fish habitat and water quality built in.”
He added that DNR’s end goal isn’t to open the area for carbon projects by establishing a new state forest. Carbon projects are already permitted on land managed by the Division of Mining, Land and Water and don’t require any new designation.
“I think the biggest thing for people to know about Alaska state forests is that they do not restrict access to public land,” Bjorkman said in a text to the Clarion on Jan. 5. “Alaska state forests are a safeguard to ensure that land stays under public ownership and public access is maintained.”
The public can submit written comments online or by mail. Comments are due by 5 p.m. on Jan. 15 and 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.
A recording of the Dec. 11 community meeting is available to watch on the Alaska DNR YouTube channel.
