Assembly approves natural resource management plan

The Mat-Su Borough’s new management plan for its forested parcels is drawing praise from those who say its emphasis on overall resource management and local use of forest products is an important step in the right direction.

Tuesday night, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly unanimously adopted the Asset Management Plan: Natural Resource Management Units. The 750-page document provides for multiple-use management of various natural resources on 167,000 acres, which is nearly half of the 365,000 acres owned by the borough.

The plan is the result of a three-year-long effort that included a scientific and technical resource inventory conducted by a consulting firm and extensive public-comment opportunities. It addresses how best to use and protect the multiple-use values of various natural resources of borough-owned blocks of land by establishing goals, management intent, land-use designations, classifications and guidelines, according to the borough. It replaces a 20-year-old plan.

In the plan, 22 Natural Resource Management Units reflect multiple-use principles. These units are located along the Glenn and Parks highways, off Petersville, Oilwell and Montana Creek roads and along the Alaska Railroad mainline.

Deputy Mayor Lynne Woods said she was especially pleased with the science behind the plan.

“This Natural Resource Management Plan is a 21st-century tool that values all uses of the forest,” Woods said.

Richard Leo of Trapper Creek agreed.

“It recognizes that industrial logging is not an economically renumerative or socially necessary endeavor,” Leo said.

Leo said Trapper Creek residents wanted to make sure there would be no more clear cutting of local forests for exporting wood chips to Korea.

“The borough kind of listened to what we were saying,” he said.

What is important, said Leo and other commenters in the northern reaches of the Susitna Valley, is for the forested land to be managed for its diverse resources and uses. The plan, they say, recognizes the health of the watershed and wildlife populations are integral to the forest uses. It also recognizes that recreational uses have some economic value, too.

The natural resources and uses identified in the plan include forest management, fish and wildlife habitat, transportation, public recreation, tourism, water resources, rock, sand and gravel, among others.

John Strasenburgh of Talkeetna was another of the 82 people and groups who submitted 380 comments on the plan. He said the plan has done a good job identifying the many and varied uses and values of lands within the management units.

Strasenburgh wrote in his most recent comment on Sept. 12, the plan “… if properly implemented, would maintain the health and sustainability of our forests, protect our watersheds and water quality, and maintain the habitat necessary to support healthy and diverse fish and wildlife populations. All of these are central to sustaining the quality of life and lifestyles of our communities, to ensuring that a broad spectrum of outdoor recreation opportunities continue to be available, to supporting recreation- and tourist-based businesses, and to providing local, high value-added use of forest resources.”

Many of the plan’s 22 management units are in Assemblymember Vern Halter’s area of representation, District 7. Halter made a few successful amendments, which include a preference for borough residents and an additional section that provides for multiple areas for personal use of firewood. Halter also added a new goal to the plan that would “reserve” areas in four units for the Su Valley Jr./Sr. High wood-fired boiler project, if the project goes forward.

“The wood-fired boiler project may be the best project the borough has ever done in terms of science and education,” Halter said.

Mark Stahl of Denali Log & Lumber said Halter’s efforts were a step in the right direction, but the borough could have taken the opportunity to dedicate some of its land to the Su Valley school projects, particularly for the wood heat. He called the goal added to the plan “a crumb or a bone.”

“We think the borough could have saved a substantial amount of money by dedicating a land base to use for that,” Stahl said. “We’re still working on it.”

Stahl also said the borough could have identified more lands that should be put up for auction.

“I think they missed a big opportunity there to broaden the tax base,” he said.

He praised the borough for the process used. Still, he thinks its emphasis on recreation and de-emphasis on potential other uses for the land — including its sale as agricultural land — is a shortcoming. He said few people will really benefit from the recreational options on those borough parcels because they won’t know they exist.

“They are going to go to a place with an established trailhead,” Stahl said. “They won’t be out there bushwhacking.”

Within the 167,000 acres of borough land in the plan, about 53,000 acres could be used for forest management and various types of timber harvest. Of that, 400-600 acres would be available annually for sustainable timber harvests.

While many praise the plan, concern remains it will not generate code to make it enforceable.

“A lot of work goes into developing these plans and I feel that they properly must be given meaningful weight in making policy and land-use decisions, and not just be put on the shelf and ignored,” Strasenburgh said. “In cases where a plan uses terms like ‘shall’ and ‘will’ in its stipulations, such stipulations must be followed.”

The plan does not establish allocation of resources for specific projects. It is part of the borough’s comprehensive plan, and can be downloaded on the Land Management web page of the borough site at matsugov.us/CommunityDevelopment.