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Roads on Gravina
By Mike Salee

 

March 24, 2007
Saturday


In response to the comment that Mr. Vickery "should have been there in the beginning not there when it's almost done",(Gravina Views,Sitnews 3/19/07),Tongass Conservation Society has been there. 
 
Here are part of the Addenda to TCS's (December 1998) comments on DNR's Central/Southern Southeast Area Plan (pertaining to the DNR parcel currently being logged on Gravina). 

"K41:  In this parcel DNR appears to be following the same model of management used by the USFS: Grand scale roading, clear cutting, catering to large corporate interests---an over-optimistic management scheme that depends upon unsustainable liquidation of old growth and wilderness habitat along with overcapitalization to pay for the high production tools and associated job skills necessary to carry out that management scheme. The philosophy is: We have these high production tools. Therefore let's tailor sales to accommodate the tools. The downside: People grow dependent upon an unsustainable source of income and as a result, wildlife, aesthetics, water quality, soil health, forest diversity, and non-targeted species all decline.
 
I crossed this parcel on foot over thirty years ago during one of several hikes across Gravina. I was surprised to see a flying squirrel in some higher volume woods near Crater Lake at the extreme north corner of this parcel.
 
TCS recommends selective helicopter logging only, if any logging is done. No roads. Trails and undeveloped recreation should be encouraged. Continuous monitoring of any helicopter logging is essential to ensure slash, tops and other waste is properly disposed of, not left scattered along the lands under or near the route of overflight as it was when LP helicoptered its timber from Granite Creek on the Cleveland Peninsula."
 
For those who think that roads will improve subsistence opportunities I'd suggest going to www.subsistence.adfg.state.ak.us/ and perusing some of the Subsistence Technical Papers under the Publications tab. You might also check out what the Forest Service wrote about Environmental Consequences under the Environment and Effects section of the Gravina Island Timber Sale FEIS v.1

Mike Salee
Ketchikan, AK


Received March 23, 2007 - Published March 24, 2007

About: "Part time to full time resident of Gravina for 50+ years. Current member and former board member of Tongass Conservation Society."

 

 

 

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