 December 05, 2008
The Tongass is the largest of the Forest Service's national forests at almost 17 million acres, encompassing most of southeast Alaska. The Central Kupreanof Timber Harvest project area is located on central Kupreanof Island on the Petersburg Ranger District approximately nine miles southeast of the city of Kake. The project area is about 152,517 acres in size and located in Phase 1 lands identified in the 2008 Forest Plan Timber Program Adaptive Management Strategy. The Central Kupreanof Timber Harvest DEIS presents a No Action Alternative and three action alternatives to harvest timber. The three action alternatives propose to harvest timber ranging from approximately 28 to 70 million board feet and building from zero to about 25 miles of new National Forest System (NFS) roads. All new and reconstructed NFS roads would be closed within ten years of timber sale activity completion. All action alternatives propose use of the Little Hamilton log transfer facility. Alternative 3 has been identified as the preferred alternative. In addition to the proposed timber harvest, the Central Kupreanof project has also identified potential stewardship contracting opportunities. Funding for stewardship contracting projects may come from a combination of timber receipts and other appropriated dollars. These project opportunities, common to all action alternatives, include trail and recreation facility maintenance, road maintenance, fisheries and hydrology projects, wildlife/silviculture thinning, and invasive plant control. Upon completing the Central Kupreanof Timber Harvest DEIS, Petersburg District Ranger Chris Savage commented that "the stewardship opportunities will be geared toward Kake and could provide new jobs and services for the community." The Notice of Availability will be published in the Federal Register, which will begin the 45-day comment period. It is the responsibility of persons providing comments to submit them by the close of the comment period. Copies of the Central Kupreanof
Timber Harvest DEIS will be available on the Tongass National
Forest website, at at www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/projects/projects.shtml,
and at the Petersburg Ranger District office.
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