Trapper Creek timber sale under fire

Sole bidder expected to benefit from transaction that will be money loser to state

January 20, 2006

DARRELL L. BREESE\Frontiersman reporter

TRAPPER CREEK - State forestry officials on Jan. 3 announced plans for a timber sale of nearly 1,300 acres in the Trapper Creek area, despite objections from residents and the request of community leaders to delay the action.

The Trapper Creek Community Council voted on a resolution during its meeting Thursday night, calling for the state to reconsider the sale. Other residents are planning legal action to stall the planned harvest altogether.

Marty Freeman, manager of the state's forest resources program, said a 20-day period in which appeals are allowed ends Tuesday. She said the state will go forward with the timber sale, barring receiving an appeal.

The timber offering is the state's largest in the Mat-Su in nearly two decades, according to state officials, and comes amid a growing demand for Valley timber and a growing debate about logging and timber sales on private and borough-owned land.

The sole bidder on the sale, if it happens, is expected to be NPI, a Mat-Su-based company that exports wood chips from Port MacKenzie. The company is driving the increased demand for Valley timber.

Since 2001, the company has leased thousands of acres from Talkeetna to Glennallen. The company also recently partnered with the Mat-Su Borough to build a $13-million deep-draft dock and conveyor belt system at the port, in part to ship out wood chips.

People living in the area are outraged that the state has apparently ignored their input and moved ahead with the sale despite their objections.

&#8220I have no objection to harvesting the timber and think that is the feeling of most people who live here,” former community council president Burnu Watkins said, &#8220but there is a better way to do it than letting it go for pennies on the dollar and being converted into wood chips.”

The community council wrote a letter to the state Department of Natural Resources during the public comment period of the sale, asking it to delay the sale until completion of the comprehensive plan, which is being currently being drafted. But the state refused and moved forward with what Trapper Creek resident Ken Marsh called a suspicious sense of urgency.

Freeman said the sale is scheduled to go out to bid before winter's end, but any harvesting is not likely to begin until next winter.

That schedule allows plenty of time for the community council to complete the comprehensive plan, before the lots go out to bid.

&#8220The state has consistently refused to listen to the people who live in the area throughout the process,” Marsh said. &#8220They're just making excuses and brush off our concerns as if we don't matter. I don't understand what the rush is and why they can't wait for us to finish our comprehensive plan.”

Other opponents of the sale are ready to take matters into their own hands.

Among them is Robert Gillam, who has invested in property adjacent to the largest parcel designated for harvesting in the state's plan. He believes the proposal would essentially cut down all viable timber in the area and devalue his property.

Gillam said he plans to take all means necessary to prevent this sale - even bidding on the sale himself. He has already hired Anchorage attorney Jeff Parker and others to represent him on the matter.

&#8220The people of Trapper Creek and the trees need a friend, and I happen to be the guy,” Gillam said. &#8220I don't think it is the right thing to let the overbearing, heavy hand of government to come in and tell the people what to do when it comes to where they live. I thought we had a government for the people.”

The state indicated the plan was to set the minimum bid so it will cover the cost of preparing the sale. Gillam questioned that logic.

&#8220With the minimum bid less than the state's costs, the people will get nothing,” he said. &#8220How does that benefit the people and families who live there? What is in the benefit to the state to lose money on the deal? What they say is in the best interests of state may not be in the best interests of the people of Petersville. The state is going to denude an area 12 miles by 5 miles in their back door.

&#8220There are hundreds and hundreds of families in the Petersville area that moved there because of the rural lifestyle,” Gillam continued. &#8220Now to have the state and the (Mat-Su) Borough come along and sell the Petersville timber for a net wash of zero, the people of Petersville will suffer for the next 50 years.”

Documents compiled by the state Division of Forestry indicated the state budgeted $75,256 for the sale, and anticipated possible sale revenues of $65,240, if the birch and spruce stands turn out to be worth $58.51 an acre. The net loss to the state would be about $10,000.

But the state also acknowledged in its documents mailed to residents that recent field work and timber sale layout work have led them to believe the volume of commercial timber in the sale area is lower than originally estimated.

&#8220These lower volumes are likely to mean less revenue,” Freeman said, &#8220which may even mean a net loss to the state.”

&#8220That is the only clear answer we've gotten from the state,” Marsh said, &#8220that they would lose money from the sale. How is that good for the state or the people who live near the area?”

Rich Leo is among the residents who will be filing an appeal, with the assistance of Alaska Survival, an environmental watchdog organization based in Talkeetna.

&#8220I homesteaded in Trapper Creek over 25 years ago to live in the wilderness of the Last Frontier,” Leo said. &#8220In all that time, the only thing that has been as contentious up here is the coal-bed methane leases, and we all know how that ended up. Nobody I know up here supports the timber sale.”

Leo said his son, Forest, and other students at Su Valley High School are questioning why and how the government can so blatantly ignore the will of the people.

Mat-Su Borough Assembly member Betty Vehrs, who represents the area, also is troubled by the state's decision to move forward with the sale.

&#8220The people live in the area because they want to enjoy the true Alaskan experience,” she said. &#8220The residents pay a high price to live in the upper Susitna Valley. Groceries cost more, gas costs more, just living up there is more expensive. They pay just as much in taxes as everyone else, yet they have poor roads and feel like they are ignored most of the time. Clear cutting is not part of what they moved to the region for. It is a shame that the state can ignore the people who have objected to the sale from the beginning.”

Vehrs also called the sale detrimental to the tourism industry, which provides the greatest economic impact to the area.

&#8220The state has been selling tourism in the region for the longest time and is even planning on a new South Denali visitors center,” Vehrs said. &#8220That is an industry that has created local jobs and that provides a real economic boost to the community. Clear-cutting the timber seems to be counterproductive to tourism.”

Many residents say they will see no direct benefit to the Petersville area from the timber sale, calling it a sweetheart deal for NPI LLC, an Oklahoma-based firm that has been logging extensively in the Mat-Su Borough.

NPI cuts the timber into wood chips that are exported for use in Japan and Korea. Every time the wood chips are loaded onto the ships at Port MacKenzie, the borough earns wharfage and dockage fees.

NPI spokesman Terry Nininger said his firm has an interest in the sale because of wood chips. &#8220It is a free and competitive sale, and anyone else is free to bid on it,” he said. &#8220Calling it a sweetheart deal for NPI is ridiculous.”

But residents indicate that a closer look at the sale reveals a different story.

&#8220It's like the state is ignoring the people who will be the most affected by the timber sale, just to sell some trees to NPI and keep the ships flowing through the Mat-Su Borough's port,” Norwood Marsh, secretary of the Trapper Creek Community Council, said. &#8220The forest should be harvested in a way that is beneficial to the local people and not some big company selling wood chips to Korea.”

Another concern among residents is the impact of harvesting trees from such a large area will have on the local community.

&#8220The impact on the quality of life and other competing forest uses is potentially significant,” Leo said. &#8220Right now, there does not appear to be any positive economic impact for the community.”

Supporters of the sale include the Alaska Moose Federation, which argues the harvest will create jobs and enhance the local economy and provide better habitat for moose.

The advisory board for the Moose Federation reads like a list of the leadership of the Republican Party. Among its members are U.S. Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, state Sens. Gene Therriault, Ben Stevens and Lyda Green, and state Reps. John Coghill and Lesil McGuire.

&#8220It's big government telling the people that they don't care,” Vehrs said. &#8220The people in that area pay some of the highest taxes in the state and get very little in services for their money. Now the state is coming in and bowing to the wishes of NPI and a few special-interest groups, with no regard for the residents.”

Ken Marsh pointed out that the current NPI harvest operation on borough property at Mile 118 Parks Hwy. is not employing a single resident of the area and has resulted in little economic benefit for the community.

&#8220Maybe the trucks stop for a cup of coffee on their way to the port,” Marsh said, &#8220but that is it. They aren't buying gas up here or even living here. All they want is our trees.”

Vehrs indicated the everyone she has spoken with in the area did not support the planned timber harvest.

&#8220What I've been hearing is the people don't want their community clear cut,” Vehrs said. &#8220That is not why they live there. They aren't opposed to selective harvesting of old-growth trees to preserve the habitat, they just don't want a barren wasteland left behind. The people of the area want a viable economy. They shouldn't have to sell their souls and the Alaska way of life they cherish to achieve it.”

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