Assembly endorses state forest plan

PALMER — It took a lot of convincing, but the Mat-Su Borough Assembly is finally onboard with the creation of a Susitna State Forest.

“I’ve definitely been someone who has spoken against this in the past couple of years,” said assemblyman Steve Colligan, who eventually voted in favor of the measure Tuesday.

He said that his concerns had been alleviated. The state had shown it is willing to communicate with the local community and take those concerns into account. It had presented a focused idea of what it had in mind for a forest.

The current plan involves designating as a forest 20 parcels comprising 686,800 acres of land on the west side of the Susitna River. Previous plans had included land on the east side that has since been removed. The state Division of Forestry would let companies in to log the lands and allow for things like roads to access them and recreational uses of the area.

Colligan said he is still worried about the plan being “co-opted” and turning from a forest into a park, but the forestry plan was better than the regulations already in place and would probably allow for some harvesting of forest products.

Assemblyman Darcie Salmon, who would go on to be the lone voice of opposition to the plan, said he doesn’t like the idea that the state came back to the assembly a third time.

“Why this time? We have rejected this resolution as a body twice and the reason was we weren’t shown a clear and concise reason for what the point was other than that the governor wanted it,” Salmon said. “You failed twice, now you’re here again. You’ve got a new (assembly) and I guess it’s going to pass because you’re going to keep bringing it back to us until it does.”

Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss said that it wasn’t the state trying again, it was DeVilbiss and deputy mayor Ron Arvin.

“This mayor and this deputy mayor understand the value of an economic sector that is going to be set backwards if it isn’t set down in statute,” DeVilbiss said.

State officials testified at the meeting that a wood pellet plant in the Tanana Valley area had considered locating in the Valley, but decided against it because without a forest like the Tanana State Forest there was no assurance the land it was harvesting trees on wouldn’t be sold off or locked up.

That they wouldn’t be sold off is actually what concerned assemblyman Jim Colver.

“I guess what troubles me is that this will foreclose the option of settlement and disposal of land,” Colver said, noting that very little land in the borough is actually in private hands. “Is there opportunity once it’s logged to settle or once it’s in the forest is it forever remaining in forestry?”

DeVilbiss actually answered the question.

“What the Legislature creates the Legislature can change, but without legislative action it’s not going to be settlement lands,” he said.

The resolution the assembly passed only endorses a plan the state Legislature is considering.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.