 May 29, 2008
The Tongass is the largest of the Forest Service's national forests at almost 17 million acres, encompassing most of southeast Alaska. The Kuiu project area is located on north central Kuiu Island on the Petersburg Ranger District approximately 12 air-miles southwest of the city of Kake. The timber harvest would generate almost 31.4 million board feet (MMBF) of saw and utility log volume from the 46,102-acre project area. The Selected Alternative in the ROD includes only ground based logging systems and use of even-aged management on approximately 1,208 acres. The Selected Alternative in the ROD includes construction of 6.5 miles of National Forest System (NFS) road, construction of 3.5 miles of temporary road, and reconstruction of 6.8 miles of existing NFS road. Road construction and reconstruction costs are estimated at about $1.8 million. All constructed and reconstructed NFS roads will be maintained by the contractor during the timber sale and will be closed to motorized vehicles after timber sale harvest and placed in storage. All new temporary roads will be decommissioned after timber harvest. The Selected Alternative includes the potential use of either existing log transfer facility (LTF) at Rowan Bay or Saginaw Bay. The facilities at Saginaw would be reconstructed before use. The Selected Alternative in the ROD complies with transition direction in the 2008 Forest Plan ROD and is consistent with land use designations. It provides a beneficial mix of resources for the public, within a framework of existing laws, regulations, policies, public needs and desires, and the capabilities of the land, while meeting the stated Purpose and Need for this project. In signing the Decision for the project, Supervisor Forrest Cole commented, "In the 2008 Forest Plan ROD, we worked hard on Kuiu Island, listening to public comments and being mindful of important community use areas. In response, we assigned a mix of non-development LUDs combined with the deferral of many parts of the development LUDs on Kuiu to Phase 2 and 3 of the Adaptive Management Strategy. The Kuiu project area is within the mostly developed area of the island, with good infrastructure and timber volumes." In signing the Kuiu ROD, Supervisor Forrest Cole said, "The Kuiu project is ripe for a decision and I am ready to implement the adaptive management strategy of the 2008 Forest Plan." The decision in the ROD can be appealed by individuals or groups who submitted comments during the comment period on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Kuiu Timber Sale Area. The Notice of Appeal must be made in writing to the Appeal Deciding Officer at the correct location within 45 calendar days of the date that the legal notification of this decision is published in the Ketchikan Daily News, the official newspaper of record. The publication date in the newspaper of record is the exclusive means for calculating the time to file and appeal. The Appeal Deciding Officer is, Regional Forester Dennis Bschor, at US Department of Agriculture, P.O. Box 21628 (709 W. 9th Street) in Juneau, Alaska (99802-1628); Email address: appeals-alaska-regional-office@fs.fed.us; Fax: (907) 586-7840. Copies of the Final Environmental
Impact Statement and ROD will be available on the Tongass National
Forest website, at www.tongass.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/projects/projects.shtml,
or at the Petersburg Ranger District office, 907-772-3871.
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