Recent Happenings: Roadless Meeting in Tenakee

More than 27 Tenakee folks showed up on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, even with a major birthday celebration conflicting up at the Learning Center.

 

Forest Service presenters included Supervisor Earl Stewart and Ken Tu, the IDT Leader for the Roadless rule changes and also head of the Colorado change team. Kyle Moselle, Associate Director of Project Management and Permitting for DNR spoke for the state.

 

The Secretary of Agriculture will be the responsible decision maker at the end of this process.

 

At least 12 different citizens spoke–maybe more—and the entire group was unanimously opposed to reducing Roadless Protections on the Tongass and felt that this was being pushed far too fast.  Especially troublesome was the fact that the state expects to pull a group or 13 people from Southeast Alaska together to research the potential changes in Roadless Rules for Alaska and have a report on the governor’s desk by the end of November per Admin order 299 of Sept 6th. Totally unrealistic. Forest Service and state players seemed to agree.

 

Comments urged more time for the initial group, but mostly focused on how important the untrammeled watersheds in Tenakee Inlet are for our fish, and the subsistence, commercial, and ecological uses of these salmon. It was emphasized that fishing is the key component of Tenakee’s economy.

 

Kevin Allred spoke to the importance of wild places, describing his hike from Tenakee Inlet to Pelican and how nice it was to not see any trash, flagging, or even weather balloons on the entirety of his trip.

 

We were told by both Earl Stewart and Ken TU that Legislated LUD II areas like Kadashan and Trap Bay  were not going to be considered under this, but it was about as convincing as when we were told that it wasn’t only the timber industry that was calling for these changes or that this was not about changing TLMP.  They did admit that if there are changes to Roadless, we’ll be back in more meetings to change TLMP.  We fear that if roads are asked for in a new agreement, that LUD II areas will be potentially impacted as well.

 

We were reminded several times by the presenters that it was fair to ask for increased protections and many of us feel that we should ask for more protection from development for Tenakee Watersheds and LUD II areas since the door is ajar.  This ask should include all the TU 77 Tongass watersheds. We were told that asking for that is reasonable and would be easily understood.

 

When pressed that logging is no longer a main driver of Southeast Alaska’s economy, Kyle Moselle responded that we should speak to what the main drivers of the economy are and that our comments should suggest ways to protect the key economic powerhouses.  The questioner had suggested that fishing and tourism were now the key drivers.

 

In trying to avoid letting on that logging was what this was all about, Kyle also suggested that the SE Transportation Plan was hindered by Roadless Rules even though he could not say that the rules prohibit roads for access to mining or connecting communities.

 

Earl Stewart said that he was impressed by our turnout in Tenakee and our consensus in opposing opening up the Roadless issue and the passion of our speakers.

 

The Forest Service speakers asked us if we considered ourselves a roadless community and were told yes.  Earl Stewart then suggested that as such, we should consider ourselves the perfect spokespeople for keeping roadless areas on the Tongass.

 

All the presenters reminded commenters (but not “official” commenters) that it is fair to ask for increased protections for important areas of the Tongass since the roadless issue is being opened up again when we submit our written comments.

 

I think consensus among Tenakee folk is that if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it, but since that hasn’t been listened to, that we should make the ask for even more protection than the current National Roadless Rules provide.