No bids for Petersville timber

May 7, 2006

By DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman

PETERSVILLE - A proposed state timber sale near Kroto Creek attracted protests from the locals, 29 appeals from Trapper Creek residents and a lawsuit.

But, when the bidding closed on the nearly 1,300-acre timber sale off Petersville Road at 2 p.m. Tuesday, it failed to receive a single bid, according to state forester Rick Jandreau.

&#8220We had hoped to get bids that would have helped in the management of the forest, but they didn't materialize,” Jandreau said.

The state expected bids from two companies, NPI LLC, a Mat-Su-based company that exports wood chips from Port MacKenzie, and Wasilla-based Whitney Logging. Both initially expressed interest in the sale, but neither placed a bid, citing the rising transportation cost of getting the timber to Port MacKenzie.

Rick Leo, a Trapper Creek resident and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the sale, believes it was the protest of residents and the merits of a lawsuit challenging the sale that kept the bidders away.

&#8220In my mind it was the public involvement that kept the sale from happening,” Leo explained. &#8220Once the public got involved and demanded stricter regulations and better management practices NPI and other potential bidders backed away.”

Resource manager Dane Crowley of NANA Services, the parent company of NPI, said economics was the lone factor that kept his company from submitting a bid.

&#8220The cost to cut the timber and truck it to port, particularly given rising fuel prices, outweighed the revenue the company expected to generate from the harvested trees,” he said.

&#8220They can say it was economics all they want,” Leo said. &#8220Had it not been for the people stepping forward and demanding the state review the sale, NPI would be getting ready to cut down trees.”

The lawsuit brought forward by Leo and others through Anchorage attorney Geoffrey Parker also came to an end when there were no bids for the sale.

&#8220The case is moot,” Parker said. &#8220Without a timber sale to challenge, there appears to no longer be need for a lawsuit.”

The state spent just over $65,000 getting the sale to the bid process and remains without a clear-cut plan for what to do with the timber in the future.

&#8220We'll have to look at our options,” Jandreau said. &#8220There is the possibility that it might go out as an over-the counter sale, or we could put it back out to bid.

&#8220A lot of it depends on the status of the lawsuit brought forward by the residents and several other factors. Basically, we need to evaluate things and determine what to do next.”

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@ frontiersman.com.